Pokemon: Moths to a Flame
by Ace of Spies
Summary: Cyrus plans on summoning ancient Pokemon to accomplish goals bigger than the universe itself, but the Sinnoh Champion has realized that his plan threatens the Sinnoh Region and the entire world. She and her allies are determined to stop Cyrus at any and all costs. Rated M for violence, blood, and adult themes, as well as a darker tone. AU. R&R!
1. Chapter 1

**Wow. Never tried anything like this before. I'm so nervous. Which makes sense because I'm a better reviewer than I am a writer. I have no idea what this might turn into, if anything. This is a short story which takes elements from the anime and the games. My hope is that it hopefully will not suck. Here goes.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, Pokemon and all characters belong to their respective owners, who don't include me.**

On a bright and cloudless day, it's still almost impossible to see the peak of Mt. Coronet from the base of the Sinnoh Region. It's a beautiful day as most trainers go about their everyday lives. Buying groceries, practicing for Gym Battles, or trying to catch wild Pokemon. But the peak of Mt Coronet contrasts sharply with everywhere else. Even if dark clouds hadn't begun forming at this altitude, even if rain wasn't coming and going at random intervals, the scene is nothing short of chaotic. Sounds of fighting from both Human and Pokemon alike completely drowned out the distant thunder.

There was a battle taking place, and at the center of the action stood a young woman with long blond hair. The woman wore an all black trench coat/cloakthat had small knives tucked away for desperate times. Black pants with black combat boots were tight but still allowed high mobility. The woman in black had blonde curls covering one eye, leaving on piercing gray eye. Behind her ears she wore these puff-puff Umbreon ear clipping things...

The woman in black was Cynthia, the Champion of the Sinnoh Region Pokemon League. Without a doubt one of the strongest trainers in the region, it was rumored that she was one of the strongest trainers on the face of the planet. Her skill and finesse in battle were simply unheard of. Currently, Cynthia was fighting a stupid looking grunt who probably should have realized that he might be outclassed before engaging her. The man wore a gray uniform with a weird 'G'... thing... on his chest. Team Galactic.

Team Galactic was arguably the biggest threat out of all the terrorist organizations out there. They wanted to recreate the entire universe.Concentration was evident through the expression on Cynthia's face. Calm, collected, but deadly and determined as well. She was fighting the grunt in close quarters, him using some assembly line mace, while she was ducking and weaving and counterattacking with her two unique wicked looking daggers*****that looked like they could cut through anything like butter.

The grunt swung wildly, but Cynthia ducked under it and countered with her daggers, ending the mans life in a matter of seconds. Fighting was usually an exhilarating experience. Adrenaline pumping through your veins, and Cynthia loved every bit of it. She frequently competed in martial arts tournaments in her free time. Right now Cynthia would've allow herself to enjoy the experience, except that it's the entire universe at stake.

Cyrus and Team Galactic, where trying to recreate the universe using the power of two ancient Legendary Pokemon that Cynthia knew all about. She loved history. So did Cyrus. The difference? She's not a complete psychopathic moron. You don't mess with legendary Pokemon. Cynthia thought that was the rule of thumb for every action people take. Her Grandma used to say "Legendary Pokemon have their abilities because they are able control them. We humans do not have those abilities for the same reason, we could never control such things."

After finishing off another Galactic Grunt, she quickly risked a glance at the battlefield. It looked like the battle was slowly turning in her favor. She smiled.

_ Well, _Cynthia thought, _I guess they made the difference after all. _Cynthia was thinking of her Pokemon, who she had unleashed upon Team Galactic when their numbers were to great. Cynthia's Pokemon are more than capable of taking care of themselves without instruction. She would never do this in a Pokemon Battle, but it was necessary here.

_ Besides, it leaves me free to get in the fight too_. Cynthia thought as her eyes roamed the battlefield. She could see all her Pokemon, and they were not in need of any help. Her Lucario was the closest, only about 35 yards away taking on a Poochyna and a Bibarel. Further, she saw Garchomp bite somethings head off, before turning around and incinerating the approaching Grunts. She felt proud, but shuddered anyways. She continued her surveillance trying to locate the other young trainers that had come with her. She saw Barry and Lucas, back to back, shouting orders at their Pokemon. Ash, Brock, and Dawn were also back to back (to back). They each had two Pokemon out that had formed a circle around the three trainers.

_They had their Pokemon form a protective circle around them, and they each have their weapons out in case someone gets too close. _Cynthia noted, _Smart. These kids could real-_ Cynthia was brought out of her thoughts by a soothing but firm voice resounded through her head.

_"Mistress, behind you," _the voice spoke with a small amount of urgency, but a lot of faith. She immediately ducked and rolled forward gaining some space between them, and then turned sharply and was on her feet less than a second later, facing her newest opponent. Just another Galactic Grunt trying to get lucky. Cyrus had sent an enormous force of grunts to slow them down. Looking at the grunt, she saw its Poochyna trying to flank her from the left. With a cry of battle the grunt charged her swiping his mace horizontally at her midsection. Cynthia nimbly ducked under it, and as she came up after the mace had passed over she jabbed her dagger into his stomach and continued until she reached his chest, just as she spun around and aimed a perfectly timed strike with the other dagger straight through the Poochyna's eyes and out the side of his skull. Quickly returning to a fighting stance to prevent any surprise attacks, she quickly looked back at her allies. _Wow, Dawn is turning into a really awesome trainer. She can really go far, _she thought.

Cynthia's assessment was completely accurate. Dawn was facing off against a charging Tyranitar that had a look of blood lust in its eyes. It might not be clear to any normal bystanders, but Dawn had the situation under control. Using quick think she cartwheeled to the side, leaving the Tyranitar to continue charging, only to hit nothing. Its momentum carried it forward a little, and Dawn saw her chance before the Tyranitar could gain back its momentum.

"Piplup! Use Bubblebeam now!" she said to her faithful companion. Piplup didn't need to be told twice. It reared back and with a cute "lup!" it sent forth an enormous torrent of high speed bubbles. Piplup had perfected this move, and was able to increase the density in the bubbles, as such they felt more like rocks. Against a ground type like Tyranitar, this move completely demolished it. The Tyranitar gave off an angry roar as it was thrown through the air.

"Smart girl," muttered Cynthia, who had been watching the whole thing. Just then the familiar voice returned.

'Mistress, someone of importance is headed your way. This being generates an aura of control, I theorize that this being is one of Team Galactic's top commanders.' said the calm voice. Cynthia glanced at the direction she felt the voice coming from.

"_Find Cyrus, we must end this."_ Cynthia relayed.

'Yes Mistress,' said the voice 'I will not be able to assist you during this time. You will be on your own.'

"I understand." she muttered as she engaged a nearby grunt, finishing this one quickly as well. The voice was her Lucario. Once she discovered what aura was she dove into any knowledge she could find on the subject. She just found it so interesting, how Lucario could project the life force emanating from all living things into a sphere, and harness it into an incredible weapon. She did everything she could to become a master of aura. She couldn't actually use or see aura, but she could understand it, and to her that was the next best thing. Cynthia and her Lucario trained a lot, eventually forming an aura bond due to their companionship. Cynthia had theorized that she might be able to communicate with Lucario through this bond. She traveled across the world seeking the help of powerful psychics such as the Saffron City Gym Leader, Sabrina. After much exhausting training of concentration and focus, her and Lucario were actually able to project their thoughts across this bond, should they choose too. It was almost like telepathy, except it wasn't nearly as refined. Now they could project thoughts to each other with no difficulty.

This proved to be extremely useful in chaotic battles such as the one they were in. They had their own unique battle style which implemented multiple variations of martial arts, which Cynthia and Lucario practiced continually. Cynthia, despite fighting enemies more than 20 yards away from Lucario, was always keeping him in her line of sight. Lucario did the same on his end, and they would use this to keep each other safe, should something slip past Lucario's senses, Cynthia would immediately warn him of the danger, and he would move to counter it. This made it so that they wouldn't be stressed out by having to focus solely on their immediate surroundings, and also proved the trust Cynthia shared with her Pokemon. This also enhanced their senses as they had to be aware of things a distance away while focusing on not getting cleaved in half as well. Fortunately, Cynthia and Lucario had all but mastered this. Both were highly trained fighters and advanced combat was almost instinct and muscle memory at this point.

Her attention was brought to her left as a tall grunt attacked her with a battle cry, swinging his weapon at her midsection. The Sinnoh Champion was prepared, however, and nimbly ducked underneath the swing, before darting up, blade in hand, and stabbing her dagger through the bottom of his chin and almost breached the top of his skull. Blood gushed out from his fatal wound, coating Cynthia's arm. She grimaced, but otherwise remained impassive. She quickly realized a body of troops was approaching her. _This must be the one Lucario mentioned,_ she thought.

Surely enough, a smug looking red-head wearing a very tight Team Galactic uniform, obviously it was customized, as there was a middle portion that revealed some cleavage the wasn't on any of the grunts uniforms. In contrast to the battlefield around her, the red-haired woman didn't have a speck of dirt on her. Not even a scratch was visible. She stopped walking around ten feet from Cynthia, who had already gotten into a battle stance.

Cynthia made sure her face was expressionless and unreadable, she was already prepared for combat.

"So your the champion huh?" said the smug woman, "I'm Mars," she paused and looked Cynthia up and down. "I expected more." she said with a cocky smirk on her face.

Cynthia said nothing, kept her face unreadable, but on the inside she sighed. '_Are you serious? Please don't monologue...' _Cynthia had been analyzing the eight Galactic troops that bordered Mars. Mars had been analyzing her as well. One look at Cynthia could tell you that she was in battle. Her trench coat/dress fusion* was torn slightly in some places. There was various cuts and scratches across her body (nothing big). There was a vertical slash of blood on her left cheek, but most notable was her left arm, which was completely covered in blood. Although she was battered and bruised there was no evidence of fatigue. Her piercing gray eyes still held the fires of determination.

Mars made no sign of it, but this troubled her. And although she knew showing the Sinnoh Champion's lifeless body to Cyrus would earn his favor, she decided to play it safe. She would use the eight grunts at her disposal to weaken the Champion, and then she would step in and finish her off.

"Surround her." commanded Mars. Instantly they eight grunts surrounded Cynthia in a circle, weapons primed and ready to kill. Cynthia didn't move, only continued to stare directly at Mars, who visibly flinched. _Maybe I can intimidate her enough so she doesn't become a threat._ While Mars had been caught up in her thoughts, Cynthia had analyzed all the grunts, the way they held their weapons, their battle stance, and what their attention was on. She realized that they had received more than the basic combat training the grunts had received, and they seemed to serve directly under Mars. It didn't matter though, none were even close to being able to match her in skill. Mars was the one wild card. Cynthia had no doubt that she was good at combat, as evident from the large battleaxe strapped on her back. Cynthia would have to watch her closely.

***AN/: ****Sorry RDP I don't know what else to call it, and I know your mad about the guy who plagiarized **_**Earth's Mightiest Heroes**_**. I just don't know what else to call her outfit. No plagiarism intended.**

**OK, the reason Cynthia is the POV character is because I haven't really seen her kick ass in a fanfic, and that's kinda my goal here. It's too hypocritical of me to say this with any ground (Cynthia doesn't actually appear like this (see above) in the show, even though that would be completely awesome), but in most fics she usually sucks and her character is way different from the anime. She's usually only there so Ash has someone to save or something. I've only seen her a couple times where she kicks ass and it's usually good, also this has been in my head for a really long time. So what did you think? Review!**

** And if anyone is wondering about the aura stuff... they have it down, but aura (or life force) is measured by emotions. As long as they are in control of their emotions, they can communicate with no problems.**

** *Look up the ebony daggers from Skyrim. The ones with runes carved all over them. Come on, you know thats something Cynthia would have.**

**This chapter would've been twice as long, but I made that Chapter 2. Thanks for reading and please review, I'd love to know your thoughts.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Last chapter was gonna be longer, but I was lazy. Heh heh... anyways shout out to LightningBlade49 for being the first review of the story. Although... I may have cheated and asked him to review... but you didn't see anything! For more info read AN at bottom.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Pokemon belongs to their respective owners.**

As the surrounding grunts stood waiting for Mars' command, Cynthia skillfully swung her daggers around her hands extremely fast, to the grunts it looked like a blur, before she grabbed the hilts as she swung herself into a combat stance. This did nothing, except demonstrate her skill. The grunts didn't seem to be too affected, but Mars wasn't going to take any chances.

"Kill her!" she commanded firmly, and the grunts leaped into action. One holding a large mace charged her from behind, thinking he might catch her off guard. It failed, however, and she spun around him as he charged past her, and proceeded to run into another grunt, who instinctively brought up his ax in defense. The charging man couldn't control his momentum and he run face-first into the raised ax, cleaving his head in two. This caused the man holding the ax to yell out a childish scream.

Cynthia released a small knife she had pulled out as she had dodged the man's attack, and proceeded to throw it accurately in the chest of a grunt who was aiming a crossbow at her. She quickly dispatched two more grunts, and spun around to meet the attack of another grunt. She pulled his body as he ran by (she moved to the side), a small move but effective as it unbalanced him and turned her towards the remaining enemies.

_'Oh, I should say something really cliché right now, something like "who's next?"' _Cynthia almost smiled at her own silly thoughts, but managed to keep her face expressionless. She saw another grunt holding a crossbow toward her, and spurred into action. She quickly threw another small knife at the grunt, hitting him right between the eyes, causing blood to gush out of the wound rapidly as his body went limp towards the ground.. _Ahhh my innocence! Oh no! _Cynthia joked in her own head, unfortunately this brought forward the fact that she had brought teenagers on a suicide mission, and immense guilt cleared out all positive emotions.

She quickly realized she was directly behind the man that had rushed her earlier, who was still on his feet but dazed and unfocused as he tried to regain his bearings. She was about to finish him off by putting a knife through the back of his throat, but stopped when she saw Mars eyebrows raised and a dumb surprised look on her face. She immediately recalled the first lesson her mentor had taught her when she was younger. "_Always try and unnerve your opponent. Then they will end up making a mistake for you, and that is when you strike"_ her former mentor would say. Cynthia then noticed the position the dazed man in front of her was in.

_'Well' _the Champion thought, _'might as well, I have had this whole emotionless mask up the whole time anyway, maybe I can finish Mars before we even start fighting_._'_ Cynthia quickly jammed her foot into the back of the dazed grunt's knee, right below a pressure point. He gasped and fell forwards but managed to catch himself with his hands before landing face first in the dirt. He pushed himself back on his knees. The Sinnoh Champion stood directly behind him, and put one hand on his lower right chin, and put the other on the left side of his forehead. She made sure she was looking directly at Mars, who's eyes were wide open. _'Pause for effect...'_ Cynthia snapped his head sharply to the side. Too far to the side. Much too far.

Mars had a clear look of panic and shock on her face. _'Did they even hit her once? She doesn't look tired at all!' _ Mars quickly arrived at the conclusion that now might not be the best time to battle the Sinnoh Champion who stood in front of her, an face void of emotions, over the body of the grunt whose life she just ended. _'Yeah... definitely not now_._'_ Mars quickly turned and fled towards the base, unknowingly letting out a shriek while she ran. She made sure that she could still see Cynthia. The last thing she needed was to be blindsided.

Cynthia managed to hold her mask up until Mars had retreated from view, then almost broke down laughing. _'Did... did she just scream? HAHAHAHAHA!' _This continued for about 20 more seconds. The Sinnoh Champion than realized that the battle wasn't over. _'The others! Oh shit...'_ she thought as she turned tried to spot the group of teenagers. She was worried until she spotted them, and only then realized some of Team Galactic's troops were retreating towards the base. She spotted some of her Pokemon dominating everything they could touch. She saw Barry and Lucas, who seemed to be enjoying the Pokemon battles they were having, even if they know what's at stake. She spotted Brock, back to back with his Golem, swinging his machete at any attacking grunts. Cynthia could see focus and determination in his eyes. _'Wait what? How can he even see? I mean are those even eyes or... forget it.' _She pondered this as she made her way towards him. A little to his right were Ash and Dawn fighting off a greenish haired man's Pokemon.

"Saturn!" she realized, and picked up her pace. She wasn't needed, however. Cynthia noted this as she saw Brock take of the head of a grunt with a swipe of his machete. _'Thank god that Kanto has a law making it mandatory for Gym Leaders to take advanced combat lessons, and it's easy to see why with terrorist organizations like Team Rocket running around aiming for world domination.'_ She silently thanked Arceus that Team Rocket had no presence in Sinnoh (excluding those three idiots), as if Team Galactic wasn't bad enough.

The Sinnoh Champion was knocked out of her thoughts as a Pokemon barreled into her, knocking the wind out of her, and sending her rolling in the dust for about ten feet. _'That... really fucking hurt...'_ she picked herself back up, noting that her trench coat (thing) had a large tear in it on her shoulder. Unfortunately, it didn't stop there and underneath that a long (but not too deep) cut was visible. She looked angrily to see what had hit her, and once she saw it a look of shock took over her face. _'Get out. No way. No WAY! I just got blindsided by... a fucking Sneasel?_ _Oh god Steven would die if he heard that... fucking Sneasel...' _she shook her head and made her way over to where the Sneasel lay, which was still on the ground. As she approached she sucked in a deep breath when she saw it was whimpering in pain, as it was impaled by a spear shaped rock that was thin but long. Cynthia sighed, before a look of pity crossed her face, as all previous thoughts vanished. Nobody should have to suffer before they died. She knelt down, and whispered soft and quiet words to the dark type as she slowly pulled out her knife, and ended it's misery. As she did so the sharp claw Pokemon let out a long, painful, final whimper which caused Cynthia to grit her teeth. She felt like a knife had just gone through her heart. She stood up and decided to make her way back to the others.

Ash had always like battling, training, and all other things required to reach the top of the pyramid that was being a Pokemon trainer. It was essentially his life, he never had felt better than he did when he was facing off against a strong opponent. This, however, was a much different experience. When Cynthia had explained the dire situation to them Ash of course leaped to whatever she had to offer. It wasn't everyday that the Sinnoh Champion calls for assistance of a 19 year old and his friends. What had followed was a discussion about death and not to get caught up in the moment should he end up taking a life. He, however, wasn't as much of an idiot as he came across as. He had seen death before, hell, he technically died right in front of his best friend on Mewtwo's Island. He had played along, but it turns out that his world was much more violent than everyone thought. People live and people die. He had experienced this when he overhead Professor Oak telling his mom that Pallet Down had once been reduced to rubble by Team Rocket, which killed his two children and granddaughter.

Ash had taken awhile to recover from that. With the help of his friends such as Dawn and Brock, and Pikachu, and Dawn... Ash blinked out of his thoughts as he and Dawn were planning on taking down an enormous Ursaring that was threatening to squash them both. He looked to his right to hear Dawn command Piplup to use whirlpool in a firm yet light voice. Piplup did so and launched the giant maelstrom at the Ursaring, effectively trapping it in the vortex. _'Now, it's our turn.'_ with a short nod towards his partner on his shoulder. He put his arm back and Pikachu jumped into it, he then threw Pikachu towards the titanic bear trapped in the whirlpool.

"Now use Thunderbolt, and give it your all!" said Ash as Pikachu was now high in the air.

"Pika...CHUUUUUUU!" came from the small rodent as he released an enormous bolt of lightning that went straight towards the Ursaring, which was still coated in Piplup's Whirlpool attack. The bear roared in pain as the vortex surrounding it was now supercharged with Pikachu's super effective Thunderbolt. After 30 seconds of fighting the inevitable, the bear fell forward, completely lifeless.

Ash and Dawn the exchanged a high five, but Ash saw that the smile on Dawn's face was forced. He didn't mention it because he completely understood why. _'I don't like hurting Pokemon either_.' He then realized that he hadn't released his hand from Dawn's. _'That's awkward.'_ he thought as he hastily did that. Smiling, he turned back to the battlefield and saw with relief that it was mostly empty as all the Galactic troops had retreated, were retreating, or were dead. He turned and saw Cynthia walking up to where the were with a troubled look on her face, as if she was in deep thought about a bad decision. Brock had already started to make camp.

Cynthia had seen the scene and couldn't help but smile as she saw Dawn and Ash high five, which ended up in Dawn blushing before Ash removed his hand. _'Ah young love. They're so cute together.'_ The blonde woman really wanted them to hook up, and a pang of guilt speared through her as she realized that neither would likely survive the inevitable fight with Cyrus. Luckily the realization that she had arrived at where Brock and Lucas had set up camp shook her from her thoughts. Her Pokemon returned soon after, tired and weary but in good condition. Cynthia apologized for not fighting beside them, and after a brief conversation with Lucario she returned all of them to their Poke Balls. All, that is, except for Garchomp, who didn't seem to be the least bit tired, and was acting very excited. _'Yeah, I wouldn't have let Garchomp loose on her own if it weren't for the dire circumstances.'_ The pseudo-legendary had come back covered with blood, and looked eager for more fights. Cynthia knew that almost all that blood wasn't Garchomp's.

Brock was examining an inpatient looking Garchomp for injuries, until Cynthia said she would do it. _'I probably should've warned them to stay away from Garchomp after big battle.' _As if it could read her mind, Garchomp turned towards her trainer and let loose a sky-shattering roar., before trying to lick itself clean of blood. Everyone but Cynthia jumped in surprise, and Barry tripped over... probably his foot. That kid was always moving.

"Cynthia, uhm... can you please return her to her poke ball... that thing is a complete monster!" said Lucas. The 'monster' then turned towards Lucas, stood up to its full height, and slowly tilted it's head to the side. _'Oh shit, now you've done it Lucas.' _Cynthia looked at the very pissed off Garchomp and the soon to be dead trainer who insulted it.

"Enough! Garchomp!" Cynthia demanded in a very serious and firm voice. Garchomp marched over towards her and looked down at the Sinnoh Champion. Cynthia just stared directly into her eyes. The tension around the camp was so dense Barry thought it would actually solidify. Then Cynthia just smirked, her eyes never leaving Garchomp's. She held a hand out and patted Garchomp on the nose, before scratching her underneath her chin. Garchomp just nuzzled against her and flopped on her side, and now looked as cute as an innocent puppy. A 8 feet tall dragon puppy covered in blood. Cynthia smiled and just sat down and started stroking Garchomp's shoulders, causing the land shark to make a weird noise that everyone assumed was it trying to purr... or something.

The others broke into their own conversations. Dawn, Ash, and May were in a circle laughing and jokin- wait May? Cynthia then remembered Ash had said he was bringing someone else. Barry was babbling about ice cream flavors to Lucas, and all the sudden Cynthia had an urge to join the conversation, but restrained herself. She returned a snoring Garchomp to it's Poke Ball and decided to lay down by the fire. She pulled her sleeping back close to the war campfire, and soon she was just staring into the fire. Everything became background noise, and it was just her and that warm, blurry, warm, fire. Eventually sleep reached out to her, and Cynthia embraced it with open arms.

**AN/: So that's all for chapter two. Be sure to check out**_** LightningBlade49**_**'s story "**_**Ash's Unleashin**_**g", it's a 'what if?' scenario where Ash decides to play it smart and safe when he battles Tobias. It's really good so far. And a story like that is needed in the Pokemon fandom. Is there anyone who was cheering after the outcome of that battle in the show? I didn't, but that could be just me. **

**In case anyone is wondering about the Pokemon League getting involved (or not), Chapter 3 will be a flashback chapter covering just that.**

**Anyway thanks for reading, and I think at the bottom of the **_**AN/: **_**of each chapter from now on I'm going to ask what your opinion is for certain theories that are flowing around the Pokemon world. I'm actually really curious what people think, and maybe it'll get me more reviews XD**

**So for this week:**

**Is N a Zoroark?**

**Leave your thoughts below and don't forget to leave a review. **


	3. Chapter 3

**This chapter was hard to write. You'll see why later on. Thanks to LightningBlade49 for all your help.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC's, who don't exist because I HATE OC'S. Read my profile to find out why. **

**~~~~~~~~~~~THE POKEMON LEAGUE HQ~~~~~~~~~~~**

**~~~~~~~~~~3 WEEKS EARLIER~~~~~~~~~~**

The Pokemon League Board of Directors had gathered in their headquarters in Hearthome City for the bi-weekly board meeting. A table in the shape of a larger oval was there, with Charles Goodshow at the head of the table. He was the President of the Pokemon League. They had already been two hours into the meeting, gone through the usual business topics, until Mr. Goodshow decided to bring up a rather controversial one. With a single hand motion all eight board members (on for each major city with a Gym Leader) were quiet. He was about to continue when the intercom buzzed. He pressed a button on the table in front of him and the voice of his secretary resounded throughout the room.

"Mr. Goodshow, your guest has arrived." a feminine voice said in a monotone voice.

"Perfect, please send her up" with that he released the button ending communications with the front desk and looked up at the board members, who were all looking curiously at him. He hastily explained "The Sinnoh League Champion will be joining us today to discus how we are to respond to the threat of Team Galactic." He finished just as a beautiful young woman with blond hair walked through the doors in her trademark outfit.

"Gentlemen." she nodded respectfully to the board members before sitting down at the opposite end of the table, directly across from Mr. Goodshow.

"Champion Cynthia, thanks for joining us." Mr. Goodshow responded.

_'Why can't they just call me Cynthia?'_ She sighed inwardly, despite knowing the importance of the title in meetings such as this one.

"Now, please direct your attention to the hologram in the center of the table" said the Company President, pointing toward a 3D hologram map of the Sinnoh Region that had simultaneously formed an inch above the table. "I'm sure some of you are aware of Team Galactic, a group of organized terrorists with a habit for destruction. They have been responsible for the deaths of many young trainers in the last three years, as well as crippling Gardenia, the Leader of the Eterna City Gym," he paused, noticing the 28 year old Champion across from him tense at the mention of the bombing directed towards her friend a few months back. "Up until now," he continued "we haven't had a clue as to what their true goals are up until now, and we just assumed they just like to cause chaos. Due to recent revelations uncovered by the Champion, we now know what their plans are. Cynthia, you have the floor." said Goodshow, giving Cynthia full attention.

She nodded, seeing that all attention was now on her. "Team Galactic is lead by a man named Cyrus. There is not a lot of information on him or his three subordinates, named Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. He also has a scientist who goes by 'Charon' working for him." as she spoke holograms of the five people appeared above the map. "We know for a fact that there is at least 3,000 members of Team Galactic. How they were able to recruit so much unnoticed is not yet known. Regardless, it's those five," she pointed to the holograms of the five terrorists "that matter." she stopped, seeing if everyone had processed all the current information. Seeing that they had, she continued "up until now we have had no idea what Team Galactic's true goals are, and as President Goodshow said we just assumed they were a petty gang of criminals, and left them to local law enforcement. But we have recently discovered what their true goals are, and unfortunately, it was a lot worse than anyone anticipated." she paused and sighed, time to drop the bomb. Using the telecaster, she zoomed in on the center of the region until Mr. Coronet was the only thing visible on the hologram. "From their base at Mt. Coronet, Team Galactic plans on... simply put, destroying, and then recreating, the entire universe to their liking" the blonde woman ignored the gasps of surprise from the board members, but was forced to raise her voice slightly so they could hear her. "In order to do this, Team Galactic plans on controlling the legendary deity of time, Dialga," a miniaturized hologram of the enormous blue titan replaced the five members of Team Galactic "and the legendary dragon that rules space, Palkia," next to the hologram of Dialga another hologram showed up, this one showing the titanic pearl colored dragon. "To recreate the universe and reform it to Cyrus' image" she tried to regain her breath.

At this point the entire board was in outrage, demanding answers and solutions to this problem. This continued only for thirty or so more seconds before Charles Goodshow stood up and quickly put an end to the quarrel.

"**ENOUGH!**" yelled the old man, slamming his hands on the table, frustration written all over his face and was clearly visible in his tone of voice. Immediately the room quieted down. He turned towards the Sinnoh Champion across from him, and asked in a much quieter voice, "Are you sure of all this? Is there any way you could be mistaken?" he almost begged. She shook her head.

"Unfortunately no, this is accurate." she responded in a depressed voice, her answer prompting a sigh from the older man.

"Do you know when they will be able to put their plan into action?" he asked.

"No, but we'd know if they were less than a month away. I have all the Gym Leaders observing the wild Pokemon surrounding each of their cities for any unusual behavior, and then reporting it to me. Pokemon are much more in tune with nature as well as supernatural forces, and many will likely go berserk should they feel a disturbance in space and time. This I am sure of." The young blonde said. "I'd estimate probably three months, as I flew up to the peak yesterday morning and it seemed as though their construction had only recently begun. Regardless we can't waste any time. We nee-" the champion as cut off as one of the board members interrupted.

"Wait wait wait, you flew up there?" he waited until she nodded before saying "Why didn't you attack them? Then there wouldn't be a problem at all!" he seemed to get angrier and angrier.

"Team Galactic is a terrorist organization. Like every other terrorist organization, each member is trained to fight. And there happens to be at least 3000 of them. Those don't look like very good odds, especially as the construction site was extremely well guarded. They had patrols in the air too, so it was hard to stay out of sight anyways. If I had attacked, I would be dead, and then none of you would know anything regarding Team Galactic." she hated when people asked obvious questions.

"But, you're the champion." protested another board member. Cynthia resisted the powerful temptation to slap her hand against her forward.

"Yes, I am the champion." she replied. She definitely was gonna have to spar with Garchomp later if this continued.

"How are you not powerful enough to take down a construction project that has just started?" demanded another board member. "How is it that our champion is too weak to defend the region she swore to protect?!" Cynthia could already see where this is going, and arguing wouldn't solve the problem. So instead she just rolled her eyes and tried to steer the conversation back on track.

"Fine. I'm not fit to be a Champion. Ok? You're right, I should be able to take care of this myself, but regardless of that, I am unable too. That mountain fortress is the most fortified building in the entire region. Infiltration is not an option. The Elite Four are somewhere in Kalos, and haven't responded to any of my messages. Even if they were here and we tried to take out Team Galactic together, we wouldn't make it up in time. There would be too many conflicts that would slow us down. Something needs to be done about Team Galactic, and the safest way to do so is to take them out with one strong swipe. We need an army." she declared.

The whole room stared at Cynthia like she was insane. Realizing this, she hastily explained her reasoning. "The last thing Cyrus will expect is a 10,000 man army at his doorstep. We can prevent this whole disaster fr-" she was cut off by the board representative of Sunyshore.

"This is ridiculous! Are you insane?!" he demanded, "an army? You want us to force people to leave their families for what? To finish your job?" he barked.

"What? No! Even though the Pokemon League is the closest thing to a government Sinnoh has, and that you could make a draft mandatory, I think you should do a volunteer army. Just volunteers, explain the situation, and th-" she was cut off again.

"Now you want to release top secret information to the public? Are you crazy? Do you want a mass panic?" a man asked.

Cynthia was shocked. _'All of reality is going to end and these people are worried about Panic?'_ "Let me make the announcement, I can do it right so that there is no panic, if anything people will want to help!" she was pleading at this point.

The representative of Hearthome stood up and started yelling at the surprised champion. "Just who do you think you are? We represent each person from our cities, and your asking us to send them up a mountain?" he demanded.

"Stop! Just listen, ok? At it's core the Pokemon League is still a company. Hire mercenaries or something! Look, I understand your hesitation. You don't want to send your people to fight. But you need to understand that your cities are in the same boat as everyone else. You will be defending your cities just as much as you would fighting off a siege. You are each responsible for a major city in this region. I am responsible for the entirety of it. This isn't your problem. You won't be sending your troops to fight the region's battles, you'll be sending troops to fight for your city! You need to do this. If you don't, you don't need to worry about your people ceasing to exist, you'll have to worry about them ever existing in the first place." Cynthia finished, hoping it was enough.

The board was dead silent. They were all looking at each other, as if they were conversing without words. Cynthia sent a silent prayer to Arceus. They then stopped. They all looked at the leader of Hearthome City, who apparently was going to represent them all on this decision. He stood up, looked at all the members, who nodded back to him, before looking at Cynthia.

"I'm sorry," he said in a much softer voice than earlier "your request is denied. There will be no army. You are dismissed."

Cynthia felt like all her hopes and dreams were just crushed under Regigigas' foot. This quickly built into anger. Did they not understand how important this was. "It's not me you have to apologize too," she said darkly as she turned towards the door "Its everything else." And with that she left the room, and soon the building. As she was walking she considered her options. The Elite Four were in Kalos, which was conveniently the farthest away from Sinnoh. By the time word reached them it'd be too late. Lance wouldn't be any help, he had to govern two regions at once. Of course he wouldn't have too if _someone_ would get off that damn mountain of his and do his job. Steven was on another underground excavation, again. He wouldn't be back above ground for a month. And of course there was Wallace, who hated her. Maybe she could try and get Winona too convince him... forget it. _'Apparently I have to resolve this by myself. Tomorrow I'm going to do everything I can to take down Team Galactic, and I won't stop until either I'm dead, or they are.'_ She was determined to end this. She sighed as she called out Togekiss for flight. Cynthia had work to do.

**~~~~~~~~~~~ONE WEEK LATER~~~~~~~~(still a few weeks before Chapter 1 takes place)**

Cynthia continued her trek up one of the several smaller mountains that surrounded Mt. Coronet. The mountain range was enormous, almost cutting the region in half. Ever since she had approached the Pokemon League the blonde-haired woman had been doing everything she could to try and take down Team Galactic without them knowing. What made it harder was the fact that she did have a deadline. Three days after the Pokemon League Board meeting she had completely killed every Team Galactic operative in Jubiliffe City. They only had a small outpost there, but it was taken care of. Now, on this sunny midday, Cynthia found herself following a rumor that Team Galactic had another smaller outpost up on this mountain. She was far from being able to attack the main fort without dying in two minutes.

Cynthia heard a small noise behind her. Although she was deep in thought she still was acutely aware of her surroundings. She acted normal for three more seconds before spinning around and pulling out her daggers, instantly in a defensive combat stance. She sighed as she was greeted to a very scared looking Treeko. Cynthia glanced at it, thinking if she could capture it. _'I've heard Sceptile's are simply awesome, and it'd be cool to see it and Lucario spar, also I don't exactly have an active grass type pokemon. Wasn't there some news about a Sceptile beating a Darkrai in the semifinals? But maybe it's family is looking for it?' _Cynthia looked down at small green gecko that was just short of plucking a ripe looking Oran Berry of a tree. _'Awwww, it's so... innocent...'_ she got down on one knee, making the Treeko suspicious of her intentions. She gave it a warm smile and plucked the berry off the tree, and handed it to wood gecko. It could barely hold it up with both hands, but took a bite out of it, and seemed to be in heaven. Cynthia's heart melted. She ruffled the short amount of fur on top of its head before giving it another smile and getting up and continuing her journey, leaving the now very happy Treeko in its own world.

Around 15 minutes later she seemed to be approaching a corner, and when she heard yelling she quickly ran and hid behind a boulder before peering over. What she saw made her blood boil. It appeared as though a group of four trainers had been ambushed by around ten members of Team Galactic. Three of the trainers were already dead, while the fourth was fighting for his life against two grunts. The other members of Team Galactic were either looting bodies or watching the fight. The sole surviving trainer was losing ground fast, and they had almost backed up up to the edge of the cliff, over which was a 50 foot fall down to a deep lake. The trainer was doing his best, but the battle was not one he would win. He managed to jam his machete through one of the grunts neck, ending their life, but this left him wide open for the other one to swing his two handed mace very hard and very fast at the now vulnerable man's head. When it connected to its target it completely shattered all bone and anything else inside the human head, causing an explosion, of sorts. The dead man's body went limp. A closer look at the man's body revealed he was a sanctioned Pokemon Ranger.

_'He probably saw those other three who were lost and decided to see them though the mountains.' _Cynthia's happy mood had already vanished ever seen she had heard the yelling at the beginning. _'You bastards, that was someone's father. Or brother. Or son. All of those other three were people too.'_ She glared hatefully at the criminals. _'I'll kill every last fucking member of Team Galactic.' _she vowed. She wasn't going to attack this group, though she knew she'd easily win, she wanted them to lead her back to the outposts. But the grunts were chatting idly next to the carnage or looting the bodies.

"Ooooh, guys check this one out! She's hot! Ah look at her..." immediately all the other grunts, eight men and two women, crowded the man. They looked at the body he was referring too, then back to the grunt that spoke, and then back to the body. The process continued until somebody spoke up.

"Uhm... Jon? You... uhh... you do realize... that... that's a man... right?" a female grunt finally spoke up. Cynthia was pounding her fist against the rock trying not to burst out into laughter, knowing that her cover would be blown. She regained control of herself, but almost lost it again when she looked back to the scene only to see a very thoughtful expression on the man now know as Jon's face. He looked like her was thinking very hard, until at last he spoke.

"No, no, silly. Your wrong. It's not a man you idiot!" said John to the female. "look, she has boobs. Only girls have boobs dumb ass!" he said to the woman as he pointed to the chest of the body. The female grunt rolled her eyes. Jon had a proud and smug expression on his face, as if he'd made an irrefutable point. From the look on his teammates' faces one could tell that this wasn't the case.

"Dude... those..." said a smaller looking grunt. "those aren't boobs. That guy's just fat... I think this is the guy who tried to teach me 'rollout' in Mauville City..." the man trailed off. Cynthia decided to ignore the rest of the conversation and just wait until they left so she could follow them. After another five minutes of talking in the midday sun, the group looked like they were ready to depart, that was, until a rather creepy looking grunt went and pointed out another body.

"See, now this one's a girl!" said the man, pleased with himself. Cynthia rolled her eyes as the others gathered around. The body in question had once belonged to a rather curvy female. There was dried blood all around her and it seemed as if a spear-head had wedged its way inside her gut. Cynthia could tell that her last moments were anything but painless. The Champion's patience had all but run out with this group.

"Dibs! I get her first!" said the creepy man with a cheery voice. Cynthia rolled her eyes at the failure of a joke.

"No way! You went first last time!" replied another one. The blonde's gray eyes widened in disbelief.

"Yeah, but she didn't count because when Sal killed her she cut of an arm too!" the creepy man protested.

_'Are you kidding me?! Are you serious right now?! IS THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENING ?'_ Cynthia was seething in anger at this point. _'You know what? Fuck it. Screw the outpost. I'll deal with that outpost shit later. I've had enough of these fucking guys_._'_ Cynthia readied two throwing knives and made sure she could grab her dagger in a moment's notice. She then walked out from behind the boulder, the group was facing the opposite direction. As such, they didn't notice the angry Sinnoh native behind them as they were too busy arguing over who got to "go first". Even the two women had gotten into the argument. She quickly thought of how to end their pathetic lives. _'If I let Garchomp loose, everyone will hear. The last thing I need is reinforcements. So I need to do this quickly and quietly. Lucario would be best for this- you know what? No. I'm killing all of them myself.'_ And with that she started walking towards the unsuspecting groups, her first targets already picked out.

"Have you no shame?!" she called out angrily, letting the knives fly as soon as the words started coming out of her mouth. She quickly grabbed both her exotic daggers and attacked the group. They all turned towards the voice, two of them hitting the ground as soon as they had turned, a knife made itself comfortable right between the eyes of both men. No sooner than that five more bodies hit the ground. It was as if she was moving at the speed of light, and she finished two others, leaving only a panicking woman, frozen, mouth open in shock, a hand-held radio in her hand. Cynthia could hear the voices coming through from the radio. She cursed out loud, and quickly threw out another knife that went through the radio, destroying it, and proceeding to tear through the woman's hand, impaling the shattered radio to her. The woman screamed before a knife went through the back of her throat, immediately killing her.

Cynthia looked around, not seeing anyone else. Her hopes were destroyed when she saw grunts coming from both the way she came, and the way she was going too, trapping her on the wide cliff. She started counting the numbers, and things weren't looking well for her. She quickly got herself into a defensive stance. _'This is way more than I can deal with.' _she realized. The troops stopped near her, she was trapped, on one side, 50 Team Galactic soldiers, and on the other, a massive drop off a cliff that she wasn't sure she'd survive. A man with turquoise green hair stepped forward, an unsettling smile on his face.

"Fascinating." the man said. It was clear that he was a major player in the Team Galactic social pyramid. "I was wondering what fool would dare strike at us all the way up here, little did I know I'd find myself in the presence of royalty." he paused, "Please forgive my manners, I am Saturn, and it's quite a pleasure meeting you, Champion Cynthia." The young woman in question had remained silent and expressionless up until this point.

"Pleased to meet you." she finally spoke, no emotion in her voice. She was still analyzing a way to get out of this situation, but so far had come up empty.

"I suspect you know of our plans?" it wasn't a question, and Cynthia wouldn't have answered it if it was. "I thought so," Saturn continued, "Why else would someone like you be all the way up here?" It was rhetorical. Cynthia had been listening but for the most part was still trying to find a way to either win, or get out. He got her attention when he drew a great sword, holding it in both hands. "You can't stop us. There is nothing you can do. Unfortunately for you, Cyrus doesn't like to take chances. Attack!" and with that command the chaos begun.

Cynthia avoided a slash at her head before countering with a fast horizontal swipe of her dagger, at the same time as avoiding three other attacks aimed at her. Cynthia knew playing defensively would do nothing for her. She had to take the initiative.

The Sinnoh Champion kept moving her body, always attacking, always weaving in between grunts as she swung her daggers back and forth across any weak points she spotted. She was constantly ducking, evading, and flipping all over the place, keeping the grunts confused as they tried to predict where she would be next. By the time she was in front of them and they tried to swing at her, she was already five feet away. She wasn't just dodging, she was attacking as often as she could always keeping her momentum she when she evaded an attack she could improvise and counter. She knew if she stayed still for a second she'd be finished.

Saturn was watching what appeared to be a blonde and black colored blur moving around the battlefield gracefully. He kept watching the sight in front of him for another 10 minutes, clearly interested. The Sinnoh Champion was clearly very skilled. She could probably even give Cyrus a run for his money. The Galactic Commander knew that she was a champion, and that champions had to be extremely skilled, and yet he was positive that the woman in front of him was better than Lance or Wallace, who were also renowned fighters. At the moment the Sinnoh Champion had cleaved her dagger across a man's eyes, before sprinting out off the way of two more attacks, ignoring the man's screams. Saturn always had a good eye for deduction. He took great pride in his skills of observation. And he could tell that Cynthia's time was running out. He knew it was the beginning of the end when he saw the beautiful woman take her first hit. A sword had slashed her leg, although she gave no signs of knowing of this.

The irony was that the sword shouldn't have hit her at all. It only happened because a clumsy grunt had tripped and dropped his sword, which got into Cynthia's path as she dodged another attack. Saturn estimated that if that hadn't happened Cynthia could have lasted at least 15 more minutes before being hit. Regardless, it seemed her time was almost up, as he saw her take another small scratch.

Cynthia was fighting for her life at this point. She tried to ignore the stinging pains one her arms and legs, along with all the other minor cuts she had received. Luckily, she usually avoided most of the hit, but as time went on she was less and less able to do so flawlessly. She couldn't keep this up for much longer. The Sinnoh native ducked under a fast swing of an ax aimed at her chest, but as she turned around (sticking a dagger in that guy's gut as she did so) she was greeted to a swing of a sword that looked ready to split her head in half. Even with her momentum against her she managed to avoid the majority of the strike, but not all of it, shown by the red cut she had on her cheek. She gritted her teeth and ducked under another swing and kicked out the legs of a grunt. She flipped back to her feet and sprung up in the air striking a female grunt's nose with her foot, hearing a satisfying **crack**. She landed on her feet, swung a dagger into somebody's eye, and quickly turned around and received a massive punch directly in the face.

She had no time to dodge the large fist that struck her, and for a second her vision was an explosion of darkness. She quickly regained her bearings, not realizing she had staggered backwards from the hit. She was able to recover fast enough to avoid a fatal blow, but couldn't avoid the full swing of the ax sliding across her back, evident as she was now gifted with a deep gash running horizontally on her back. She gasped in pain as she failed to dodge another swing, this one slightly cutting her neck, leaving a rather ugly slash. She quickly did a defensive maneuver, swiping her daggers around in a circle skillfully. This succeeded in giving her some space to recover, and at this point she was breathing heavily.

Cynthia was panting, and realized they had backed her up against the cliff. The young woman looked down and grimaced. She had no options. She had lacerations, both light and deep, covering various parts of her body. All in all she was in terrible shape.

All her enemies stood facing her about 10 yards away, from every side. They all had weapons drawn. Some of them parted and Saturn walked through, looking completely unharmed, still holding his great sword in both hands. Cynthia realized that her situation was hopeless.

"I'm impressed." stated the Commander, looking the beaten champion up and down. "It took 15 minutes for 60 trained and armed men to take you down, and it seems you've killed over 20."

"This...is not... over" she managed to get out. Even breathing was causing her pain at this point. Saturn grinned at the comment.

"I'm going to enjoy this." he said as he hoisted his great-sword and charged the cornered champion. He was still more than 10 feet away when he shouted "Now!".

Cynthia had gotten herself as ready as she could in her current state to try and fend off Saturn, but was completely unprepared for the crossbow bolt than passed over her shoulder, severely cutting it in the process. She let out an agonizing cry of pain when it hit, and again as another bolt slammed into her lower stomach, somewhere close to the side. As the bolt rammed into her Cynthia felt like every one of her nerves were on fire. She was finding breathing harder and harder. She managed to realize that Saturn hadn't stopped, and she was now completely defenseless. He got closer and closer, until he was only a few feet away from her he thrust his massive sword through Cynthia's chest.

Cynthia with a cry of determination and all her remaining strength, swung a dagger as hard as she could, knocking it's aim of so the blade missed her. It was then she realized that Saturn had not only anticipated that, but was counting on it.

As the defeated champion knocked the blade away, Saturn smiled inwardly. That was what he wanted her to do. He was still moving forward and as the sword was knocked to the right, so were both his arms. Now his left arm was in the perfect position for him. All the Commander did was slightly raise his elbow, and put much more force behind his raised arm. He let momentum finish the job. He was grinning ear to ear as he smashed his elbow straight into the defenseless woman's forehead. He savored the satisfying cry of pain and anguish she made at the impact. He was still smiling as he saw her fall backwards, right off the cliff. He felt more accomplished than he ever had in his entire life as he watched the soon-to-be-dead champion's body become smaller and smaller in the distance. _'I think I can die happy now.' _he thought with glee.

An explosion of light was all she saw as Saturn rammed his elbow into her face. Cynthia felt as if time was slowing down, and then returning to normal as her vision slowly returned, and she realized she was falling. She regained control of her senses, fiddling with her belt until she managed to grab a random Poke Ball. As she clicked open the ball and the white flash started taking shape, she said "Please! I need you hel-" she never finished as she slammed into the water at high speeds, and then there was only darkness.

**~~~~~~~~CHAPTER END~~~~~~~~~~**

**This chapter is for everyone who said Chapter 1 was cut off early. They are correct. I apologize.**

**Once again huge thanks to LightningBlade49 for being so creative and coming up with so many ideas. I'm telling u that guys head is a 'How To: Creative Writing' book or something.**

**Now I know what is gonna happen immediately following this, but after that I have no idea. If you have any ideas or suggestions or anything you think of feel free to leave it in a review or PM me. I can't promise your suggestion will make it in, but there's a pretty high chance of it. **

**Polls up on my profile, so go check it out. Don't forget to leave a review. **


	4. Chapter 4

**Hopefully this chapter is good. Thank you to **_**LightningBlade49**_** for helping me out. He's been really awesome giving me an objective point of view on the plot and a lot of my ideas are formed from his suggestions. Thanks to **_**PureGamer **_**as well, I think you're the only one to review all three chapters so far, and when I was having writers problems you helped me out. **

**OK, now on with the chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Pokemon belongs to their respective owners.**

**~ ~ ~ CHAPTER 4 ~ ~ ~**

There was a flash of light quickly followed by a loud splash. Slowly a purplish being materialized from the light and haunting, maniacal laughter could be heard throughout the lake area and into the forest surrounding it as well, scaring away anything and everything whether they originated from Lavender Town in Kanto to Mt. Pyre in Hoenn.

The purplish creature finished materializing out of the Poke Ball and in all it's glory. The being was mostly purple, not solid or liquid, but not quite gas either. It also had vibrant green eyes and a creepy green smile to complete the package.

"TOMBBbbb..." the creature said eerily, which was now revealed to be a Spiritomb. It was very confused as to where it was or how it got there. '_And where is the one I serve, where is Carolina's Granddaughter?'_ the ghost type questioned internally., as it began searching around for the Sinnoh Champion. Only then he noticed his surroundings, which only served to add to his confusion. He was levitating above the center of a body of water, perhaps a lake, so he floated down towards the surface to get a better understanding of his situation. Not noticing anything out of the ordinary and not recognizing anything, he started towards the edge of the lake, when something caught his eye in the shallow part of the lake. _'Oh dear...' _was the first thing that came to mind as he realized what it was.

His attention was directed towards a black and blond unmoving figure in the shallow water as if it had washed up from the deeper parts of the lake. Knowing who it was, he rushed to the figure who was cloaked in blood, which had systematically turned the surrounding water red. He almost grimaced at the troubling sight before him. There was his current trainer, laying there as the shallow tide lapped against her body softly. He could easily see that she was covered in wounds, ranging from lacerations, both long and short, to a particularly ugly wound that seemed to carry some type of small but sharp arrowhead. Looking at it he could easily see the entrance wound as well as the exit wound, but worse was the fact that it was sticking out from both wounds with its ends, effectively impaling the young woman. Closer observation revealed that, since she was on her side, he could see a nasty looking slash the ran diagonally down her back, starting from just underneath her left shoulder ranging to her right lower torso.

Spiritomb was very concerned and remorseful. He had seen the young woman in worse conditions before, but she was surrounded by allies at the time. As if it was bad enough that they were alone, her wounds were something that definitely worried him. He tried to form hands so he could move her, but realizing that he wasn't anchored stopped him from becoming physical*. He quickly bonded himself to a nearby stone that had also been washed up by the tide before turning back to help his companion. He attempted to carry her but on contact the woman let out a moan of anguish, and he elected to stop.

_'What happened to you?' _the ghost type wondered, deciding to look around to see the cause of her pain. He quickly discovered that, other than the blood coating Cynthia and the surrounding water, the lake looked untouched. _'No fight could've happened here.' _he realized, still looking around. One half of the lake was surrounded by forest, and the other by a large mountainside that couldn't be climbed. Looking up he saw that there was a flat surface high up on the mountain, maybe 45 feet up or so. It then dawned on him _'The fight must've happened up there, and I guess she must've fallen into the lake. A fall that big must've knocked her out.' _he concluded. But that didn't explain her wounds. He knew Cynthia was one of the best fighters on the planet. Carolina had sought to that by having her trained by her best student, the blue haired man with spiky hair. So what could've happened? Was she ambushed? Taken by surprise? Or maybe she met a fighter that was simply too much for her. But who could be that good? _'Her training is one of the most rigorous on-' _he snapped out of his thoughts as he heard voices coming from the forest. They seemed to be nearby. He quickly made his way back to Cynthia, who unsurprisingly hadn't moved.

_'What if they want to kill her? Maybe it's an organization like Team Rocket? Regardless I can't risk her being spotted by enemies.' _he decided as he tried to wake her up. _'Hey! Get up! Mistress! Oh crap she isn't waking up. If only I had ice cream, that always works.' _He quickly considered his remaining options. He could only cloak himself, and he couldn't cloak another being unless he was possessing that person. _'Wait! Maybe I should... no. I can't. Carolina made me swear to never possess another living being again!' _but his previous master had told him that loyalty trumped everything else. He needed to save her life, but to break a vow... _'Screw it. This is a life or death scenario.' _his decision made, Spiritomb released himself from his temporary anchor, not caring what happened to the small stone, and flew into Cynthia's body. Her eyes snapped open and she let out a choked cry, her back arching upwards as a purple hue came from her eyes. He let out an unconscious gasp before her body disappeared entirely. 

Jordan had joined Team Galactic because he had nowhere else to go. After sexually harassing his well-endowed boss (at the time), he had been fired, and divorced soon after as his wife was furious that he had cheated on her. Team Galactic had been recruiting at the time, and he signed up so he wouldn't have to live on the streets. Not to say he didn't enjoy his work, on the contrary joining Team Galactic was the best decision he'd ever made. There was good pay, a place to call home, and not mention the rewards gained from completing missions. He sighed happily as he remembered the woman from Sunyshore that he had kidnapped during a recon mission. She wasn't involved at all, but seeing the busty receptionist in a white top that had just the right number of buttons undone, and he couldn't resist following her on her way home. He could still remember the feel of her lips when he forced himself in her mouth. He had threatened her family should she notify the cops when he was done with her, and she hadn't visited the police station at all when he showed her Team Galactic's symbol. The next day he returned to the base in Jubiliffe (which apparently was recently burned to the ground) with the intel, received his pay, and moved on with his life. But life wasn't always perfect, and this was one of those time when he realized his job had a downside. He sighed sadly as he continued watching the Houndoom and Mightyena sniff the dirt for the Sinnoh Champion's body. He was sent to "confirm the kill" as Saturn had put it. In other words, cleanup duty. Perfect.

"Hey Jordan," said a similarly dressed by slightly smaller man next to him, who was also scouting the trees. "Do you think Cyrus will reward us if we bring him her head?" he asked.

"No," Jordan sighed disappointingly, "Eric, it's gonna be Saturn that gets the reward. It always goes to one of those three." He knew that his partner knew who he was referring too. Eric was a lot smaller than the average man, but faster and smarter. Even though he was mostly an annoyance to Jordan, he was also just as entertaining. Eric was always on top of the rumors that spread around Team Galactic, no matter how crazy they were. He seemed to know every single one, and Jordan was fascinated hearing about some of the strange things his peers talked about.

"But," he said in a happier tone, immediately gaining the smaller man's attention. "If were the ones who bring her head to Saturn, there's no doubt he'll reward us after he turns it in to the boss and gets his reward." this seemed to brighten up Eric's day, and the next thirty seconds were spent in quiet, until Eric spoke up in a worried tone.

"We uh, we're not gonna actually cut her head off her body and bring it with us are we?" this got Jordan to roll his eyes.

"No moron, it's a figure of speech. Were gonna bring the whole body." he replied. Sometimes Eric could be really stupid. What was he thinking anyways? They weren't gonna just _**Ned Stark**_ the Sinnoh Champion! Jordan involuntarily let out an annoyed sigh.

"Dude, what if she's alive?" said Eric. The taller man beside him stopped at this and pondered it. He hadn't been at the fight, but from what he'd heard from some people who did, the thought was enough to make him worry. _'I remember Sam said that she was moving so fast he could barely see her. And from the injuries that they had when they returned...' _that alone was enough to tell him not to underestimate her, until he looked around and remembered why it was they were searching the forest surrounding the lake below the cliff, and not on the mountain itself.

"Heh don't worry. Sam said she was real beat up before she took a dive? Besides, there's no way she survived that fall." he said reassuringly. Eric wasn't completely convinced.

"I don't know man," the smaller man replied, "but I heard a rumor that she was trained to survive in harsh conditions. Besides, she's really athletic. Heh heh, really really athletic." Jordan smirked knowing where his friend's thoughts were. Not to say he hadn't been thinking about the beautiful Sinnoh Champion himself.

_'She's so freakin hot. I hear she has some really nice curves. Mars got nothing on Cynthia!' _He then closed his eyes and started fantasizing about the blonde woman, but was quickly brought out of his stupor when Eric spoke again.

"Speaking of weird rumors, wanna know what's been going around Saturn's division as of late? I've been hearing some strange things," he waited until he received a nod from his taller friend before continuing, "So apparently Saturn believes that the Champ used to be the boss' protege. I've heard that Saturn truly believes that Cynthia used to be the boss' student, and that's why she's so good at fighting." he said, turning to see that he fully had Jordan's attention.

"What?" said Jordan, who had been surprised by the intriguing theory. The last theory that Eric had told him about was that they were in a fake world that was dreamed up by a ten year old that got struck by lightning, so this was certainly an improvement.

Eric nodded. "People are talking about it. Some say that the boss did train the champ but apparently only Saturn believes it. But here's the strange part; I saw Beecher asking Saturn about it the other day, and Saturn didn't deny it. All he did was smile. Weird, right? What do you think about it?" he finished.

Jordan scoffed. "I used to be on guard duty to the boss' training room. I've seen the boss when he's training. The man is unstoppable and he knows it. I think Arceus himself may have trained him. He uses some sort of fancy martial art that apparently only he knows. He always uses some fancy staff that has a blade on the end. It's like a spear, but it's longer and more narrow. The blade on the end is also a lot sharper. Anyway, if he trained Cynthia, that would mean she's almost as good as he is. Boss would know that sending us after her would be suicide, and Boss would never do that any of his crew. So it couldn't have been him that trained Cynthia. And anyways, Saturn beat her, and Boss would crush Saturn in less than a minute. There's no way he trained her." he said as he looked over at his friend. Eric looked like he agreed with him. Another thought came up and Jordan shared it "besides, everyone already knows who trained the champ. It was her gra- what's that?" he asked as he pointed to a Houndoom that had clearly spotted something.

It was barking loudly, and all the other canines soon picked up the same scent and started barking as well. Both men took out their stun batons and ran through the clearing that dogs had gone through. All the Houndoom were now strangely quiet. As they came through the clearing they stumbled across an ocean of red.

"...Whoa..." was all that Jordan could say, clearly stunned, until he realized what the red lake meant. "See? Look at all that blood. There's no way she survived!" he said to his fellow employee beside him. Eric seemed to believe him, was than said something that made his blood run cold.

"But where's the body?" he countered, eyes never leaving the lake as he gazed upon it, trying to find the body. Jordan, however, just shrugged casually.

"It probably just sunk to the bottom of the lake. Let's just go and report this to Saturn, I don't like the feeling I get from this place. Eric agreed and as they walked away with the canines following he asked "Hey are their any other rumors about Cynthia? Like how big her rack is?"

Eric chuckled at that. "Unfortunately, no. But you've heard about that boy right? The one that's supposedly up on Mount Silver? It's an old Kanto legend." he continued when Jordan nodded, "right, well apparently the champ, err, former champ was the last person who talked to him. I heard somebody say that they kept contact until..." they continued talking about rumors all the way back to Team Galactic's camp.

Spiritomb waited until the man left before catapulting himself out of Cynthia's body, once again making it visible. He wasn't feeling right. Cynthia wasn't conscious so she couldn't feel the resulting pain from her injuries. Spiritomb, however, could feel every single thing when he took control, and it felt like every fiber in his being was on fire. To make matters worse, it turns out his blonde master had the toughest mental resistance he had ever experienced, and she wasn't even conscious. He knew without a doubt that nobody could try and take over her mind. When he took control, her subconscious realized that some outside force was trying to take over and attacked, trying to kick him out. He had managed to stay through sheer determination to save his friend. He glanced down at the woman, and winced when blood started dripping out of her nose. _'Side effects... whoops...'_

Now how in the world could he save her? _'What's that lady that she used to take me too... Oh I remember! Nurse Joy! She can heal any type of Pokemon, and Pokemon have more advanced systems than humans! She can save her!'_ this was thrown in the dirt when he realized that he couldn't move her without causing her to whimper in agony, as if she was a newborn Vulpix pup that had been kicked. He carried her to a large nearby rock and laid her against it in a more comfortable manner. He knew he could never carry her all the way to a town while listening to her pain. It was hard enough moving her five feet! And besides, he had no clue how to far or even what direction the nearest town was. He didn't even know where they were! Not to mention moving her would likely cause her injuries to get worse. _'Maybe I can go and get help? No, I'm not leaving her unprotected in this state. Not to mention it'd take forever for those pea-brained flesh-lings to figure out that I'm not trying to hurt them, and even then it'd take too long for them to understand me.'_ Now out of ideas and hopeless, he did the closest thing to a sigh he could manage and decided to sit by her side to ensure she passed along peacefully. He almost wanted to cry. He had been passed down from master to apprentice for centuries, and this was the first time he failed one.

He heard noises close by, and realizing he didn't have the strength or the time to cloak her he decided to kill whoever was approaching. It was three humans and two Pokemon, they were chatting casually. The first was an excited looking girl holding a Piplup in her arms. Spiritomb was surprised when he saw that her hair was blue. _'Curious. I've only seen one person with blue hair.'_ shrugging it off he looked to the next person, who appeared to be a tall man who... didn't seem to open his eyes. At all. Ever. On the other side of the blue-haired young woman was a boy who appeared to be in his late teens. He had a familiar cap on and a Pikachu was on his shoulder, scouting it's surroundings as if it was looking for anyone that might be watching. Spiritomb realized that the Pikachu had detected him.

After a moment of silence, the trio getting closer and closer to the lake, Spiritomb was trying to figure out why the juvenile with the Pikachu seemed so familiar. After a couple moments he remembered, this was one of the guys who was watching his battle with that angry purple kid's Pokemon. He had beat all of them in one hit each. He remembered Cynthia talking to this man afterward. _'Maybe he's a friend of Cynthia's. At this point that's my last hope'_ he thought, as he made himself known.

It was a beautiful day so far for Dawn. The last week was completely peaceful. No problems, unless you count the couple trainers they met on the road that challenged them to battles. Things seemed to be looking up for the young woman and her friends, so when she saw what appeared to be a beautiful lake through the forest she excitedly suggested they go there for some relaxation, and they could let the Pokemon out as well. Ash and Brock agreed, and now they were steadily approaching a break in the forest that led to the clearing where the lake was. As they passed through the break in the trees, Dawn took in her surroundings. The lake was surrounded by trees as well as a very steep looking mountain that led up to a large cliff. Luckily that cliff was currently blocking the sun, caking the area in a warm and cozy shade.

Just as she was about to let out her Pokemon, all peace and calm was shattered by a mysterious purple being that materialized out of thin air with a chilling laugh. Dawn quickly summoned Buneary while Brock pulled out his custom made machete. Ash quickly pointed at the ground in front of him, and quickly his partner jumped off his shoulder, cheeks sparking and combat ready. The being, which was now revealed to be a Spiritomb, didn't attack. It almost seemed sad, and it simply turned and slowly floated towards a large rock that was just out of the reach of the tide. It passed the rock and turned around, looking at the side of the rock that they couldn't see.

"I... I think it wants us to follow it." said Dawn, curiosity forcing her to break the silence. Ash nodded, and the group followed, but maintained caution. The passed the rock and turned to see what Spiritomb was gazing at, and none could hold back the gasp of shock and horror at the sight before them.

Laying there was none other than the Sinnoh Champion, Cynthia, who happened to be a friend of theirs. Except she didn't look like the champion you'd think of upon hearing the word. She wasn't standing proud, with one arm resting against her hip and one leg out. Cynthia was currently the opposite, she looked like she had been through hell. Her eyes were closed and she appeared to be unconscious, but that didn't stop a pained expression from appearing on her face. Every few minutes she'd make a small sound that conveyed the agony she must've been put through. Her outfit was scarred and torn in some places, and covering her body were scratches, slashes, and other lacerations, as well as a number of other notable wounds. Cynthia was coated in blood and all the surrounding water was a dark red. They hadn't noticed before because of the shade covering the whole area. A small arrow was bolted through her side, likely between two ribs. She probably had even more injuries that weren't visible at the moment. Across one of her shoulders was a deep gash, the only relief was that she was still breathing.

"Oh my god..." said Dawn, her hands involuntarily covering her mouth in horror. The others' faces held similar expressions. The shock, horror, and surprise could be seen along with their gaping mouths and wide eyes. After a moment of shocked silence, Brock's medical instincts kicked in and he quickly rushed over to her side and began checking her pulse and preparing to clean out her wounds, while Ash and Dawn were aiding any way they could.

It definitely wasn't an easy process, but they managed to stabilize her blood loss enough to ensure she wouldn't bleed out. They began to clean out her wounds to make sure they weren't infected. Removing the crossbow bolt (Ash had recognized the design) embedded in her side was tricky, and the unconscious woman let out multiple cries of pain, making the process slower and harder, as nobody wanted to cause her any more pain. Eventually they got it out, and after cleaning out the wound Brock sewed it up along with the other wounds. After he sewed up the wound they found on her back, Brock safely determined that she wouldn't die from infection or blood loss, but she needed time to recover her strength, and it was just a matter of time before she woke. There was nothing they could do about her shattered ribs except make sure she kept still and wait for the body to undergo it's natural healing process.

Ash was setting up camp while Brock was stoking the fires and Dawn was grooming a flustered Piplup. He had already laid down tents and earlier they had moved Cynthia against a tree. Brock had removed all her weapons but left her coat on for warmth. It had only been a few hours since they found her and Brock remarked that half of her rib fractures were mostly healed, which was extremely abnormal. Ash reminded himself to ask her about it when she woke. He noticed many of the smaller cuts she had received had disappeared. The sun was setting and Spiritomb was wandering around the forest, and all of Cynthia's Poke Balls were accounted for. Ash had suggested opening them saying that they might be able to help, but the group decided that it was best to wait for her to wake up. Brock said to watch her carefully claiming that she had likely experienced trauma before being knocked out and might be confused when she awoke, which was another reason Brock had removed her weaponry. She had two interesting looking daggers that Ash wanted to study, even though he decided to ask Cynthia about them when she awoke. She also had a lot of throwing knives. The group was startled by a loud caw of a Skarmory that flew overhead, and soon Dawn brought Ash out of his thoughts.

"Ash, hey, look at Cynthia," she was almost whispering. Brock had heard and was also staring at the Champion. She appeared to be... having a seizure. She was shaking violently but strangely wasn't not making any sound.

"Don't go near her." Brock warned darkly. Ash looked at the older man skeptically but decided to trust his friends judgment, even though he thought they should try and hold her still. She still kept shaking for another thirty seconds before she stopped. Her head slumped down in front of her, and the constant spasms had repositioned her on her knees. Her head was still down, but two small daggers appeared in her hands. Had she been keeping them in her coat-arms? Ash's eyes widened when he saw her daggers flash dangerously in the remaining sunlight.

"Cynthia..." he questioned quietly as he reached for his stun baton. He got no answer from the Sinnoh Champion, but she slowly lifted her head until she was looking him straight in the eyes, causing him to recoil. She had an expressionless face on, but her iris' had turned from their sharp gray to a piercing red, which seemed to glow. She made no sound or movement as blood ran down her nose. Ash was really freaked out by this point, and it didn't help when she got to her feet, balancing herself as if she hadn't done so before. The strangest part was during the entire motion she maintained not only her almost-robotic face, but her eye contact with Ash, who was starting to feel sick.

"**DIE!**" she suddenly yelled in a voice that he couldn't recall the Sinnoh Champion ever using. And before he could blink, Cynthia attacked.

~ ~** ~ CHAPTER 4 END ~ ~ ~**

**AN/:* I don't think Spiritomb needs to be directly connected to that rock thing that they have. I believe that they can become ethereal at will and use the rock (or anything really) to solidify themselves should they want to.**

**This is AU, and so when Paul challenged Cynthia, she beat all his Pokemon with Spiritomb, NOT Garchomp. **

**This is likely the longest chapter I've ever written, and it took way to long as it is. I originally planned for this to be twice as long, but this is all I have. I have a few ideas for the plot but nothing actually written. I'm thinking about doing a time jump...**

**As I said before I can't take all the credit. **_**LightningBlade49**_** didn't give me all the ideas, but the majority of them spawned from his suggestions. Therefore he deserves a huge thanks. **

_**PureGamer **_**has a community called 'Cynthia-Centered Stories', so if you love Cynthia as much as I do go see what it has to offer.**

**Also, I left an easter egg in this chapter, and if your involved in the Pokemon fandom hopefully you'll get it. Here's a hint: Ash's coma theory. Hopefully that won't give it away. It probably will, but regardless, tell me if you find it and I'll be sure to mention your name at the beginning of the next chapter.**

**So far we got 300+ views, but less than 10 reviews. I really want to know what you all think, whether you love, or hate it, I always try to respond to all PM's and reviews. All criticism accepted! Anything you think will help the story! Let me know! **


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5 is here.**

**Answering a guest review who thought that Spiritomb was Cynthia's main Pokemon, the answer is no. Garchomp is. But when she battled Paul she didn't use her most powerful Pokemon.**

**Once again thanks to **_**LightningBlade49**_** and **_**FieryDarkWrath**_** for all your help. **_**FieryDarkWrath**_** submitted the most helpful review I've ever received, and I'm eternally thankful for that. Be sure to check out his Pokemon fic "****Aura of Betrayal****", especially because Cynthia will be in that story, and Cynthia is hot, and hot is good. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. Surprise!**

**~ ~ ~ CHAPTER 5 ~ ~ ~**

Ash had never been so confused in his life before now. Not even when Professor Oak told him that he and a friend had taken down all of Team Rocket when they were younger. He was baffled, but his confusion at the moment couldn't be put on a scale. The whole situation seemed surreal, there was Cynthia, a women who had just been on death's doorstep, now moving at blinding speeds attempting to murder his best friends. The Sinnoh Champion was known for her cool exterior and ability to remain impassive and calm, so seeing the attractive 28 year old blonde in a crazy killing spree was definitely new.

_'This isn't happening,'_ Ash thought with dread as he attempted to get his stun baton working. He froze as Cynthia dispatched Brock by intercepting his attack with the end of her blade, cutting into his wrist and forcing Brock to drop his only tool of defense. Brock was brought to his knees by a gut shot that knocked the wind out of him, and now he was on all fours trying to breathe. Cynthia crossed her arms on front of her and prepared the killing blow, seeming like she was going to cut of his head with two diagonal backhand strokes at once.

"Pip!" the small water-type said angrily as he rammed into Cynthia before she could finish the former Gym Leader, effectively knocking her to the side. Ash couldn't help but wince as she landed on a cracked rib, but she didn't seem to notice. Dawn had gained her bearings and had her quarterstaff out at it's full length and she stood protectively in front of Brock. Apparently her reaction time was much better than Ash's. He took this moment to converse with his friend from Twinleaf.

"Dawn! We can't hurt her, she's just not herself. We can't risk reopening her wounds!" he exclaimed. Dawn didn't appear to agree.

"Of course, but our lives come first. That's not something we can risk either." she pointed out. Ash saw nothing wrong with the logic, but Cynthia had recovered, and Ash decided to take the first move.

"Pikachu, use Iron Tail! Strike faster rather than harder!" ash instructed his faithful companion. The yellow rodent charged towards the fully recovered woman in black. Dawn was thinking of a plan while keeping an eye on Cynthia, so Ash took this time to analyze the Sinnoh Champion.

_ 'She's favoring her right leg, so clearly her body isn't completely healed. But she doesn't appear to feel pain either, so something's messing with her head. Pushing her into some frenzy. Maybe she'll tire out? Regardless, she shouldn't be able to walk, much less keep up with Pikachu's Iron Tail.' _Ash realized what he just thought and looked back to the action. Pikachu was using the fastest Iron Tails he ever had before, flipping in midair, never staying in one spot. Always moving, always attacking. He felt proud of Pikachu, but his joy quickly turned to ash when he saw that somehow. Cynthia was somehow keeping up with the electric rodents super speed attacks. She was clearly strained by the continuous focus, but she had managed to avoid being hit by a single one.

_'She can't move that fast!'_ Ash's world seemed to freeze when Cynthia blocked him in midair again, but this time Pikachu's lost balance in midair. The black-clad champion spun around and kicked Pikachu. Hard. "No!" shouted Ash as he bolted into action, hearing Pikachu let out a squeak of pain. Cynthia jumped up and prepared the final blow, only to be body slammed a second time as Ash rushed to intercept her. His body slam knocked her out of the air and her midsection hit the ground hard, but Cynthia staggered back to her feet with a grunt of annoyance. Her attention was solely focused on Ash now.

Of course because of this, she was wide-open for Dawn to strike with her quarterstaff. As Cynthia was hammered by Dawn's practiced strikes, Ash ran to Pikachu's side hoping nothing bad was done. Pikachu appeared to be stunned, but otherwise alright. Hearing a worried cry he turned back to see Dawn returning Piplup to his poke ball seconds before Cynthia's attack followed through. Apparently Cynthia had grounded Dawn before attacking Piplup, but Dawn was now back up and expertly swinging here quarterstaff around. With a snarl Cynthia charged her, only to be clobbered in the side of her head halfway there.

_'Dawn's quarterstaff! Cynthia has no defense against it's range!'_ realized Ash. The two females charged each other and continued their duel, although it was clear that Cynthia was on the defensive, trying to counter whenever she could. Ash saw that he couldn't help, a downside of the quarterstaff was that it required a lot of space, and he would only get in the way. He could only hope his blue haired friend could defeat the Sinnoh Champion. He saw Cynthia block a strike, but it turned out to be a feint as Dawn whacked her in the face from the opposite side, forcing Cynthia to give a demonic yelp.

Ash couldn't help but be feel speechless by what he saw. Dawn moved like an angel, and of course Cynthia's tattered black clothes only seemed contrast against Dawn's fluid movements, driving the angelic image further into Ash's head. He watched as they continued to block and counter each others attacks and counterattacks. Anyone could see that both were skilled with their weaponry, and on closer examination Ash noticed that even though Cynthia was likely the more skilled of the two, Dawn held a huge advantage because the older woman couldn't compete with her range.

Dawn had grown into a beautiful young woman, a very curvy young woman. And there was the fact that she always seemed upbeat and was nice to everyone she met. Ash blinked.

_'What the fuck am I doing? Cynthia's trying to kill us!'_ with this he was brought back to reality. He had no room to get involved but now it seemed a though Dawn had taken a few hits as well. Ash felt like there was something on the edge of his mind, but he couldn't reach it and didn't know what it was. Yet something about the whole situation seemed... familiar. The whole thing had a... Lavender Town vibe to it.

Cynthia showed her flexibility as she ducked backwards underneath Dawn's swing, spinning around and sliding her blade across the back of Dawn's legs as she rose. Almost immediately Dawn cried out in pain and fell forward, managing to catch herself with her hand and knee. Cynthia finished her off with a knee to the jaw and a right hook to the side of her forehead. The Champion was then greeted to a sharp pain in her forehead.

Ash continued taking advantage of Cynthia being stunned by his first hit and pressed on with his attacks. Every single one hit and she couldn't muster any defense against the constant bombardment of Ash's baton. She was being forced backwards with every hit, and Ash wasn't letting up. A few moments later he stopped to catch his breath, and he looked to see Cynthia on her knees was panting heavily. She sharply looked up at him, and from her demented eyes Ash knew the fight wasn't over.

Before he could move Cynthia let out a cry of anguish, hatred, and anger. It sounded monstrous, and seemed as if Cynthia had four different voices. Ash was thrown backwards by some dark energy that seemed to be emitting off Cynthia in waves. He hit the ground painfully and looked up with a groan. He was now 20 feet away from her, and the darkness was still pulsing from her. _'What is that? Some kind of Dark Aura?'_ . He pulled himself into a sitting position with another groan, and he noticed that the 'dark aura', as he was now calling it, was nowhere to be seen. Not only this but whatever had happened had clearly affected the champion as well, who was hunched over in pain. Only her hands and knees were keeping her from the ground. Slowly, she managed to stagger to her feet, and Ash would never forget what happened next.

Cynthia looked towards Ash, and he watched as a look of realization crossed her face, before quickly turning to rage.

"**YOU!**" she yelled at him in that demonic voice, and for some reason it seemed like her eyes were beginning to bleed tears. Ash had never seen a more hateful expression in his life than the one that he saw on Cynthia's face right now. "You! You... Oak should've killed you along time ago! You and your fucking organization! You took everything from me! But no more, today you die Giovanni!" she yelled.

_'Giovanni? She thinks I'm Giovanni? But... I only know one Giovanni... oh shit...'_ horror dawned on him as he realized that the Boss of Team Rocket must've done something terrible to his blonde friend.

Her cloak was torn, and was flowing behind her, making it seem like some kind of demonic cape. The look was reenforced by her glowing red eyes. She looked like something out of a horror film. The world slowed down for Ash as she took a step towards him.

"Clair." was all she said as she took another step. "Ethan." another step. "Lyra." with every step a new name was spoken. "Kris." "Leaf." "Red's father." at this point she was louder and her eyes were brimming with tears. She kept going. "Mom." her voice was shaking now "Dad." she took another step.

"Sarah." she was practically weeping at this point, but continued shouting in rage, "Everyone who lived in Pallet Town, along with anyone else who lost their lives for you and your fucking quest for power!" she was right in front of Ash, but he was too shocked to move.

_'Lost their lives... Oh my god... Cynthia... Giovanni killed your family. I'm so sorry. But was she listing off people that Giovanni killed? That's what it sounds like but... wait a minute! She said "Red's father"! I thought Red was just a myth!' _he looked up at her shaking form, and now knew that Cynthia was much deeper than anyone could think of. He never would have guessed.

The Sinnoh Champion stood above Ash pointing a knife at his throat. She snarled "I should've been the one to kill you. I deserve to kill you! Red may have- **UGHH!**" she cried out as she was flung backwards into a tree by an invisible force. To the right was Spiritomb, who was looking guilty at the moment.

The ghost type shot a dark energy at his trainer, and Ash winced as hit hit Cynthia's unmoving form. The energy started circling and surrounding her like a Pidgeotto hunting a Rattata. Then the darkness rushed into her body, which caused her to spasm around and her nose to bleed. After ten seconds she went completely limp, but Ash suspected she was back to normal as the energy left her before evaporating.

"Let's move her back too camp," suggested the boy who went to check up on Dawn and Brock, who were stirring. Spiritomb agreed and lifted Cynthia with his psychic powers and carried her back to camp. _'When she wakes she'll kill me when she learns what happened here.' _ he knew that he was going to have a lot of explaining to do.

A couple hours later everyone was patched up but tense, making sure to not let down their guard. They were packing up when Cynthia stirred.

"Ughhh, my head..." she said groggily, trying to sit up against the tree she was laid against. She blinked but instantly brightened when she saw who stood across from her. There were three young faces that belonged to trainers she hadn't seen in a while. "Ash and Dawn! Brock! Wow, I never thought I'd be seeing you... guys?" she asked carefully noticed their cautious and hostile expressions. The blue-haired woman in her late teens from Twinleaf had her quarterstaff extended. The tension was steadily increasing as Cynthia tried to read the trio's expressions to find out what was going on. Finally Brock broke the silence.

"Cynthia, what's the last thing you remember?" he asked in a soothing yet cautious tone. This made the Champion think back.

_'Let's see, I was fighting on a cliff. It seemed like Team Galactic. So what... Oh...'_ her faced turned beet red as she remembered being thrown off the cliff. _'Fucking Saturn!' _she thought in anger. She realized that they were still looking for an answer so she decided to just get it over with.

"Heh heh, I was fighting Team Galactic and... may have been punched off a cliff." she said while looking at the ground and scratching the back of her neck nervously. Dawn raised an eyebrow and Spiritomb snorted in amusement. Ash came forward.

"You went into a crazy frenzy, attacked us, and nearly killed every one of us **and** our Pokemon. Right after we saved your life too." he said bluntly, as him and his two friends relaxed.

"I what?!" said a shocked Sinnoh Champion, as she took a moment to think of the possibilities and causes for how this would have turned out. She narrowed her eyes and glared at Spiritomb, who was looking as guilty as an ethereal shadow ghost monster could. Cynthia tried standing up "What did you d-arghhh!" she cried out mid sentence as she fell down. Apparently she was feeling pain from all the previous wounds.

Ash's first instinct was to run and help but stopped as Brock and Dawn rushed to her aid. Something in Ash's head had gone off, like a trigger, upon seeing Cynthia fall. While Brock was asking medical questions and testing her eye coordination, Ash noticed Dawn was looking at him strangely. _'How does she always know when I'm thinking about something important?'_ he thought, shooting her a disarming smile as her turned around to think. Ash knew she wasn't fooled, but at the moment he didn't care. Something was on the edge of Ash's mind and he had the need to discover what it was. Ash decided to consider the events of the last day closely.

_'First, we found her almost dead and incapable of moving. When she woke a few hours later she seemed fully healed and was in a frenzy. But now that her consciousness has returned she can feel the full extent of her injuries. So whatever it was it must've made her temporarily immune to pain. But why does Spiritomb look guilty? Did he do something to her? And why in the name of Arceus did she think I was Giovanni?!' _he shook his head. There was too many unanswered questions.

_'Maybe I should contact Sabrina, she's good at mental stuff like this. I'll see what she knows. Besides it'll be good to catch up with her. I wonder how things are in Kanto...'_ thoughts of his home took over his head. He sighed, it was times like this that he missed Pallet Town. But he was still curious about Cynthia, but more importantly, Red. She had mentioned Red's father, but Red wasn't real, right? Maybe she was just delusional at the time and was just saying random things. He dismissed that thought soon _'Those things she said were really personal, no way she just made them up. But where does Red fit in?'_

Ash grew up idolizing the man known as Red, who was said to have become Kanto Champion. But he had learned that Red was just a bedtime story for kids, like Santa Claus. He had always dreamed of becoming a Pokemon Master, and now he was more determined than ever. He was going to find out if Red was real, and then he would challenge him. If Red were real than Ash wouldn't stop until he could beat him.

_'But if he's real than Giovanni killed his father, or at least Cynthia thinks so. Eh, I'll ask Sabrina about that too. But she said something about Pallet Town too, what could that be about?' _Ash remembered when he was younger that Prof. Oak had told his mother that Pallet Town had once been burned to the ground, and had only been recently rebuilt before she moved in. He shook his head, getting more confused and curious with every second. _'I really need to speak to Sabrina.'_ he thought.

He noticed that everyone was almost packed up. "Where are we going?" he asked to nobody in particular. Brock was the one to respond.

"We're going to a Pokemon Center to make sure Cynthia's ok. Celestic Town is nearby anyway." the older man said. Ash responded with a nod and helped the others pack up.

They arrived at Celestic Town, which was said to be the most peaceful place in Sinnoh. The people were very kind, and that was something Ash didn't mind at all. The Pokemon Center was located right by the edge of town, which was pretty convenient. Cynthia wanted to go visit her grandmother, but she lived on the other side of the town, so she was outvoted and was forced to go to the hospital first. Why Cynthia wanted to walk all over town in her condition was beyond Ash, but maybe it was a champion thing.

Surprisingly, Cynthia wasn't mobbed by fans or anyone really, and it seemed the people of Celestic Town didn't think of her as 'above' them, which was something Cynthia seemed to enjoy. They spoke to her like she as a neighbor rather than a celebrity. She was soon being led into an examination room by the local Nurse Joy, who was enjoying chatter with the Champion. Dawn sat down on the bench and Brock was... on the floor, hand twitching, and being dragged out the door by a small purple frog-thing. Ash rolled his eyes. He quickly excused himself from Dawn and asked the Pokemon Center assistant if he could use a video phone. Soon he was led into a booth that with a glass door. Like all Pokemon Centers in the Sinnoh Region, this one had private booths for people using video phones. This mean that the glass surrounding the video phone was soundproof. He close the door and dialed the number of the Saffron City Gym.

His curiosity had reached a breaking point so the thirty seconds it took for someone to answer the phone felt like hours. Finally someone picked up. Standing there was a young woman who was clearly in her very late teens. She had straight black hair that curled up slightly behind her, and she opened her eyes revealing deep pink iris' that held a mysterious power behind them. Standing before Ash Ketchum was none other than _The Mistress of Psychic Pokemon_, with whom Ash shared a close friendship with since they were 12.

Her eyes brightened as they recognized the nineteen year old in front of her. "Ash!" said Sabrina gleefully "by Arceus it's been forever! How are you guys? Where's Pikac- Ash?" her expression changed to one of confusion at the young man in question. He had appeared to zone out when he caught sight of something on Sabrina, er... two somethings on Sabrina. She was attending a party later on and as such had a rather low cut dress on, that seemed to fit her hourglass form perfectly.

She rolled her eyes. _'Well, at least he's not a complete idiot anymore.'_ the psychic master thought, thinking back to Ash's oblivious nature. She returned him to the land of the living when she she moved her arm in front of her chest, blocking his view of her breasts.

"Huh?" said Ash, blinking, very confused as to where he was. Standing in front of him was a beautiful young woman his age with a smirk plastered on her face and an eyebrow raised in amusement. They stood like this for a few more seconds, before Ash's mind caught up to the situation and they both simultaneously burst out laughing.

"So Ash, glad to know I don't have to give you "the talk" again. Said Sabrina while laughing, causing Ash to go red with embarrassment at the memory.

"Hey! That's... that wasn't my... it's my mom's fault!" he managed, clearly flustered. He shuddered at the embarrassing memory. When he was 13 he decided to revisit everyone who helped him on his journey through Kanto and Johto before he left for Hoenn. He had reached puberty and had grown quite a lot, but still was completely oblivious to anything to do with human relationships.

Misty and Sabrina had the 'bright idea' to try and seduce him just for laughs, simply to see how he would react. What resulted was likely the most embarrassing moment in Ash Ketchum's life. After that Sabrina had decided to explain to him "how the world worked".

He was brought out of his thoughts by Sabrina's next playful question. "So, have you slept with the **bluenette** from Twinleaf yet?" she said with a sly wink. He was caught off guard but Sabrina wasn't done. "Of course you haven't, because you're you. 19 years old and you haven't- you know what? Not my problem. Have you at least told her how you feel yet?" said Sabrina with an exaggerated eye roll and a huff.

Ash responded with a red face "What?! No no Sabrina you got it all wrong! I don't like Dawn! I swear!" he exclaimed, shaking his hands in front of him for emphasis. Sabrina didn't respond, only narrowed her eyes and looked behind him. Ash turned around to see... nothing. Perplexed, he turned back around but Sabrina was still looking behind him as if looking for something. Another ten seconds passed before the psychic mistress spoke.

"... the fuck?" said the Gym Leader. Ash's confusion had peaked by now.

"Ok, what's going on?" he asked, earning a scoff from his longtime friend.

"... in Arceus' name..." she kept muttering frustratedly before turning to Ash and responding. "Ok look, I've seen this situation happen like fifty times, and every time someone is denying their feelings for someone else out loud, the person in question always walks by and overhears. It's practically a cliché at this point, and they get all upset and then drama and ughhhh do you know what I mean?" she finished.

Ash had no clue how to respond to that, and just then Dawn walked by, presumably to call her mother.

"HA!" claimed Sabrina, pumping her fist in victory "I knew it! I knew it!" she said happily.

Ash just smirked and tapped the glass behind him. "soundproof glass." he said straightforward. Sabrina gasped.

"That's cheating!" she said, but Ash just shrugged, and explained to her that every Pokemon Center in the Sinnoh Region had private video phone booths. They exchanged small talk a bit more before Ash got serious.

"Sabrina, do you remember the time you taught me about ghosts? Right before I went to Lavender Town?" he asked. Seeing that he was serious, the psychic mistress thought back and nodded.

"Ok, well can you remind me what the symptoms and side effects of possession are?" he asked. Sabrina thought for a minute before responding.

"Someone who is possessed is completely under the control of ghost, and nothing really happens until after they're possessed. Anywhere from 2 to 8 hours after the possession, the person might twitch uncontrollably during rapid periods of time. This is the bodies nervous system reacting the lack of consciousness controlling it. Often nosebleeds will occur during this period of time as well, and they can keep happening up to a day after the ghost has left the body." she said after collecting her thoughts. Now it was Ash's turn to think.

_'Ok, well that's definitely Cynthia, but what about the other thing? She went crazy!'_ he thought.

"What if the person were to go into a sort of... "rage mode" where all logic and reason loses them and they attack everything in sight? Is that from ghostly possession?" he asked the psychic master. Sabrina thought for a second before what she recognized what he was talking about.

"Sometimes, if a ghost-type pokemon were to possess an unconscious mind, a strange thing will happen when the ghost leaves. Instead of the consciousness returning, it will stay dormant until the person would have awoken. Something else fills the void when the ghost leaves. The person's darkest thoughts, feelings and emotions sort of... manifest into something that resembles a consciousness. This takes over the body. But this can only happen if the person's mind is weak or if the dark emotions are extremely strong. This is very rare though. Is that what you mean?" she asked, looking at the boy in the blue pokemon cap. He nodded, but was now thinking about earlier.

_'So, that means that all those things she said must've happened in the past, and she never moved on internally.' _he decided to speak up.

"Yeah, that's it. Just happened to a friend of mine and she almost killed us." he answered, causing Sabrina's eyebrows to rise.

"Really? Who?" she asked with interest.

"Cynthia." he replied bluntly. Sabrina looked shocked.

"Your friends with the Sinnoh Champion?" asked Sabrina.

"Yeah..." Ash said slowly, "we've been friends for a while now."

"And your saying that she... wow..." said Sabrina, clearly troubled. She then narrowed her eyes. "Ash, I've worked with Cynthia before. I've seen her mind, and it's one of the strongest on the planet. If what you're saying is true, then that means Cynthia's emotional damage must be very severe. Did she say anything when she... ya know... anything that might've revealed what's going on?" she asked. Ash nodded.

"Yeah, and I think Giovanni must've killed her family. She was naming off people that Giovanni had killed." he said, causing Sabrina's face to turn from confused to shocked.

"Giovanni? Impossible, the man's been dead for years. She would've still been young around the time he died. Why would he target her?" said Sabrina. Ash's brow furrowed in concentration. He was on to something, and the pieces all fit too perfectly to not work.

"I don't think he was targeting her. But it gets even weirder. She named Red's father." said Ash, letting that sink in.

"What?!" Sabrina was almost struggling to keep up. _'Red? He's just a myth? But... what if he's not. Did Cynthia know Red?'_ she blinked out of her thoughts when Ash spoke up.

"I've pieced together what I could, but I don't know enough. I haven't heard Red's story since I was younger, and I don't remember any of the details. And anyways isn't it a ghost story? Do you remember it? What was it?" demanded Ash, who had theories climbing up and down the walls in his brain. Cynthia was such a mystery.

"Ok, shut up already! Yes, I remember it, and yes I'll tell you. Now shut up and listen." said Sabrina in a joking manner. "The myth is basically that Red was a young boy who beat all 8 gyms and became Champion of Kanto in less than a year, but that's not the extent to it. Supposedly he had a vendetta against Giovanni and became a hero to the people of Kanto. Why the vendetta? Nobody knows. Many believe that Red lived in Pallet Town and wanted vengeance because Giovanni burnt Pallet Town to the ground. Even though some people think he's from Sinnoh. Anyway I'm sure you've heard of the story that a huge fire spread through Pallet, and although it was labeled an accident, many people believe that it was Giovanni trying to get revenge on Professor Oak for stopping him in the past. In any case Oak's children, children in law, and granddaughter died in that fire. In any case, Giovanni somehow became Champion of Kanto, even though decades earlier he had publicly announced that he was Team Rocket's leader and he was going to take over Kanto and Johto, right before he murdered Clair the Dragon Master. She was the gym leader in Blackthorn City, and did you know that it turns out she was Lance's older cousin?" she paused, seeing if he was still with her.

Ash remembered overhearing Professor Oak telling his mom how Pallet Town had been reduced to rubble. He nodded to Sabrina to show he was still listening, and she continued.

"The problem with that myth is that another myth states that Red wasn't even in Kanto or Johto at the time, he was somewhere up in some mountain range training with some people. Who's to say which one's right?" said Sabrina, "In any case, Red took the Pokemon League Challenge and got all the badges and beat the Elite Four and Giovanni, technically making him Champion, but then Giovanni fled. The next part of the myth says that Red hunted down and killed Giovanni, and then went up Mt. Silver, where supposedly he still is." she finished. Ash was even more confused now, but before he could comment Sabrina spoke up.

"Before you start believing any of that nonsense let me say this. A couple years ago a went to Mt. Silver and did a psychic scan of the place. Nobody had been there for centuries. I even climbed to the peak and looked around up there, but I got the same result. Nothing. Red probably never existed." finished Sabrina. Ash almost seemed disappointed.

"But if Red doesn't exist, then what was Cynthia talking about?" he muttered out loud. He looked up to see another playful smile on his psychic friend's face.

"But here's the catcher," she started "Kanto and Johto have different Elite Four, but Lance is the Champion of both, right? Wrong. If you look at the official Pokemon League, Lance is marked as Champion of Johto, and _**temporary**_Champion of Kanto. Now why would that be there? Who holds the actual Champion's seat? Maybe Red existed and the people were so thankful that he killed Team Rocket's boss that they kept his Champion's seat open?" Sabrina finished with a smirk. Ash was thinking deeply.

_"Professor Oak told me that and a friend ended Giovanni's original campaign when they were younger. Years later, Giovanni revealed himself to the public again, and according to the myth, set Pallet Town ablaze. Oak's family was killed, including his granddaughter "Leaf". I saw her gravestone behind his house once. Maybe the other people Cynthia mentioned where his children and children-in-law. So let's say Red's family died too, that still doesn't explain how Cynthia fit's in. She must've been Red's friend, but she said that Giovanni killed her family too. Why?' _Ash was all but stumped. He knew that Cynthia had a grandmother around Oak's age, maybe... _'Maybe her grandmother was Oak's friend! And so when Giovanni burnt down Pallet he also wanted revenge on Carolina, so he had her family murdered, and that explains Cynthia! And because Red killed Giovanni, that means Cynthia never could avenge her family! That explains her inner anger! _

Ash's mouth was wide open as he realized what he had discovered. But did Cynthia and Red know each other? Where they friends? Where they enemies? Ash realized it didn't matter, he had learned so much and was satisfied for now. He was gonna find Red someday, and then challenge him to a battle! He wouldn't stop until he beat him.

**AN/: This chapter was gonna be so much longer, but I'm literally stuck now. I don't know where to go from here. So I typed up what I had and poof, here we are. **

** If anyone was wondering about 'aura-ash', the answer is... im not sure. I was planning on that but much better ideas came and so far I haven't found a way to make it work. **

** I literally have nothing else directly after this, so review or send me a PM with your suggestions. **

** What did you think of Ash's relationship with Sabrina? Do you think it works? Should she appear again? **

**Thanks for reading, and don't forget to ****REVIEW!**


	6. Chapter 6

** So here is Chapter 6 everyone. I'm not gonna lie, I'm kinda disappointed. So far _Moths to a Flame_ has gotten over 1000 views, and only about 16 people left reviews. I really wanna know what you guys think! That being said I'm shocked that my tiny story has gotten that number, but I actually think it's a coding error for the website. Anyways thank you all so much and enjoy, but don't forget to REVIEW!**

** I realized I haven't gone over anyone's Pokemon team yet, so I decided to share with you what my ideas are. These are the Pokemon they currently have on hand.**

** Ash: Pikachu, Monferno, Staraptor, Gliscor, Buizel, Torterra. **

** Dawn: Piplup, Mamoswine, Quilava, Pachurisu, Buneary, Ambipom.**

** Brock: Onix (this is AU, so fuck Steelix), Crobat, Vulpix, Croagunk, Sudowoodo, Happiny.**

** Cynthia: Garchomp, Lucario, Spiritomb, Togekiss, Milotic.**

** So what should Cynthia's final Pokemon be? The choices are either Glaceon, Braviary, or Gastrodon. Just go to my profile and vote on the poll, whichever one is ahead by the time next chapter comes out will be her sixth. **

** Once again thanks to _LightningBlade49 _for your help, support, and ideas. I can easily say that this fic wouldn't be what it is without you. Thanks so much, and good luck with _Ash's Unleashing_, which I'm looking forward to as well.**

** Also thanks to the amazing _FieryDarkWraith_ for all your help as well. Your a freakin genius, and your stories are awesome. I appreciate your help as well.**

** This beginning AN was way too long, hopefully the chapter will make up for it. Enjoy!**

CHAPTER 6 ~ ~ ~

Cynthia was feeling much better, and after a nice hot shower and a good night's rest, Nurse Joy had declared her fit for travel. Now that she could walk around by herself, her first objective was to visit her grandmother, who she was planning on introducing to Ash, Dawn, and Brock.

Of course her visit would have to be brief, as she had wasted enough time being injured already, and the looming threat of Team Galactic wasn't going anywhere. Cynthia still had yet to ask the help of her three younger friends, which she was planning on doing as well. There was also the possibility that her mother didn't yet know of the threat that was Team Galactic, as the public was clueless and besides from Cynthia only a couple people knew what was going on at Mt. Coronet.

Cynthia sighed, just hoping that her grandmother already knew, less she be forced to explain it to her. _'How am I supposed to tell her that her greatest student, the man she raised from the ground up, now sits at the head of the most evil organization in all of Sinnoh?'_ she pondered.

Regardless, Cynthia was happy that she was going to see her grandmother again. Professor Carolina happened to be her last living relative, and as such they had grown very close since the deaths of Cynthia's family. Cynthia quickly shook these thoughts out of her head so they couldn't venture to dark places. Looking up she saw that she was only about a minute away from the large house on the hill where Carolina lived, so she continued walking, thinking about how her grandmother would react to her dropping in unexpected. _'Her old martial arts training might kick in and she might try and kill me if I sneak up on her.' _the thought brought a smile to the champion's face. Her grandma always was cautious, but she had a warm heart.

Looking up, Cynthia saw that she had reached the path that led to the house where she was raised. As she reached the front door she frowned, and glanced at suspiciously at the lamp hanging above the door.

"That's odd, grandma always keeps that lit." she murmured, narrowing her eyes and slowly trying the door to see if it was locked. It surprisingly wasn't, and Cynthia had a bad feeling when she walked into the house. All the lights were off, but the sunlight that came through the windows lit the room well enough for her to see. Everything looked untouched, and the blonde woman slowly walked around silently, while eyeballing anything that might seem suspicious. The bad feeling in her stomach was growing worse and worse.

She cautiously walked through the main hall, thinking about why all the lights were off. _'Maybe she left the house? No no, then the door would be locked. I hope everything's alright.' _she thought as she glanced into the empty kitchen, before moving on to the living room, where the TV and couches were held. As she entered she loosed a horrified gasp at the sight she was greeted to.

The room was torn apart, curtains were torn off the windows, the couches were torn up, the TV had a hole in it and was sparking, not to mention the bits of dried blood placed around the room. The sinking feeling Cynthia had was now at an all time high. Glass was shattered around the room as well, and it almost looked as if a war had broken out. Following the trail of dried blood around a torn couch, the blonde haired woman peered around and cried out at the sight.

"No!" she shrieked and dashed towards the being laying on the floor. Lying there was none other than her grandmother, who was staring blankly into space. She wasn't moving, and there was a bloody knife in her hand as well. Cynthia immediately knelt by her side and grabbed her hand while begging to Arceus it wasn't what she feared. Unfortunately, there was no rise and fall of Carolina's chest and when she checked for a pulse she only found silence. Cynthia choked back a sob and slowly shook her head while she silently mumbled to herself in began to flow down her cheeks as she lifted up the body of her last living relative. Now she was truly alone. She dragged the body into her lap and in spite of herself buried her sobbing face in Carolina's shoulders and cried out.

This lasted for a few moments until Cynthia placed the body back on the floor and got back up to her knees. She wasn't too sad anymore, and her face had become the emotionless mask she was famous for. Despite this internally all she felt was rage and anger. She was furious.

_'Who could've done this?!' _the only sign of emotion on the beautiful woman's face were dried tears. It was time for vengeance. Whoever had done this would pay with their lives. She needed to find whoever did this, and as logic returned to her she instantly had a suspicion. Whether or not she was right, Cynthia would find whoever did this, and kill them mercilessly. It was long past time she got justice for her family.

Half an hour later, Cynthia hadn't found anything except blood and other parts of the destroyed room. The bloody knife in Carolina's hand made it clear that she put up a fight. Despite no evidence Cynthia knew it was Team Rocket. Who else would have done this? Team Rocket were the only people who had any desire to kill Carolina, and she had only made enemies with Team Rocket, whom hated her beyond measure. _'But what's the point?' _she thought, _'Giovanni's dead, and he was the one with the problem. Of course even in death his evil lives on in his people. Maybe those sick freak decided that having grandmother come home from work to her dead family lying on the kitchen floor wasn't enough, and now they wanted to finish the job. But if that's the case, then that means they would've targeted Professor Oak as well. I have to warn Red!'_ she bolted up but paused when she reassessed the situation. Realizing that the remnants of Team Rocket were based in Kanto, Oak would've been the first one attacked. He might already be dead.

The Sinnoh Champion froze when she heard the a floor creaking from upstairs. _'So, somebody is still here. Good, because I'm gonna fucking gut the- Oh shit no Articuno's daggers!' _in panic she threw all stealth out the window and ran upstairs to make sure her greatest find was secure. Surprisingly there was nobody on the top floor, and once she was sure of this she bolted into her room and shoved open the doors to her closet. Fumbling around, she eventually found the small button she was looking floor. With a hiss part of the wall on the other side of the room slid outward like a DVD player. She bolted over to it and sighed in relief at the site in front of her.

In front of her were two identical daggers with ancient runes on them. They looked exactly like the daggers she used except the runes on these were glowing a white/blue color, and a cloud of cool mist was coming off of the daggers as well. She reached forward, only to withdraw her hand with a childish yelp on contact with the handle of the deadly ancient weapon. _'I forgot how cold these are.'_

After holding them and getting used the cold touch, she sheathed them in a hidden sheath on her back that blocked all the light and cold the artifacts emitted. _'These will come in handy against Team Galactic... wait! I can't use them? I promised Articuno I'd ensure that these would never fall into the wrong hands, and if I were to... fall... on Mt. Coronet... No. I'll send them to Red, better to stick with what I know. He better still have that epic sword from Sky Pillar.'_ she sighed, it seemed she finally caught a break. She went back to her closet to close up the hidden drawer in the wall, but paused when she saw her old outfit hanging in front of her.

Obviously it was too small now, but otherwise it looked just like the one she wore now, except that instead of the black it was gray, and the yellow parts were black on her old outfit. _'Sarah always liked this one.' _She smiled sadly at the memories of her younger sister. With a deep sigh she closed the hidden drawer and after packing a few more identical combat outfits like the one she wore now (as well as changing out of her torn one), she decided to head back to the Pokemon Center and to her friends.

_'Wait, I should probably tell Jenny what happened.' _she realized, and changed direction to the Police Station.

Half an hour later the Sinnoh Champion returned to the trio, who were bickering at the moment. Dawn was the first to notice the sad expression Cynthia wore.

"Hey Cynthia, what's wrong?" she asked in a concerned tone. Cynthia smiled sadly.

"My grandmother just died." she said bluntly, surprising all three of the people in front of her.

"Oh god, I'm sorry..." said Dawn. Cynthia only shrugged.

"It's alright, I'm used to it by now." she said. Brock caught that and quickly responded.

"What?" he asked, curious but soft. Cynthia blinked, now realizing what she had let slip. She hastily recovered.

"I said 'it happens', after all nobody is above death." she finished. _'The last thing these kids need is to worry about grandma's murder too. I still have to ask them about Mt. Coronet.' _she sighed before speaking up. "Guys, I need to tell you something." She briefly explained the whole situation with Team Galactic and Mt. Coronet, making sure to include the part with the League not willing to cooperate, and they all listened intently, stunned about the whole thing.

"So the point is, I was planning on going up their alone, but I'm aware of the fact that I can't succeed on my own. I'm climbing that mountain no matter what, but I need to ask, can you guys help?" she asked. Ash, Dawn, and Brock exchanged quick glances, and then Ash spoke up.

"We're in, and I actually know some people who could help out." he said. _'I could get Barry and Lucas to help out, and I heard that May's in Sinnoh right now, it'd be nice to see her again.' _After the warnings of danger from Cynthia the group was unfazed, and Cynthia said she was going to go off into the Celestic Town woods to train for a couple hours. "Oh yeah we'll come too! But first, I need to contact Professor Oak." said Ash. Cynthia blinked as if remembering something.

"Oh yeah me too." she said, causing Ash to look at her confused.

"Why would you need to contact Professor Oak?" he asked.

_'Oh shit I can't believe I said that out loud. I'm on a roll today.' _she thought sarcastically. Try as she might she couldn't find any excuse to contact the Kanto Professor that wasn't personal.

"That is- Why- its cu-..." she stuttered pathetically, before narrowing her eyes. "It's none of your business." she huffed in embarrassment, causing Ash and Dawn to laugh at her red face. She stormed inside the Pokemon Center.

The video phone in front of her rang before the old man picked up. He put on his glasses but still took a moment to recognize the woman through the video screen. When he did her brightened. "Ah Cynthia long time no see, how have you been?" he asked cheerfully, but he paused when he noticed the emotionless face in front of him.

Cynthia swallowed her sadness before speaking. "Grandma's been murdered. I figured they'd go after you too, so I was calling to check up on you."

Professor Oak was stunned into silence. He sighed in grief as he processed the information. His oldest friend was now dead, and what would happen to Cynthia now that she had no living relatives? "Wow..." he muttered sadly, before looking back up at the champion. "Are you alright?" he asked in genuine concern. She nodded back to him but he could see sadness in her eyes, as well as great anger, which was only natural. Her eyes were still focused on the floor.

"How is _he_?" she asked quietly, causing the Professor to sigh again.

"I wouldn't know, he hasn't come down since his last visit, which was a year and a half ago. You'd think he'd visit his grandfather more often eh?" said Professor Oak.

_'He's becoming part of that mountain every day he spends up there.'_ she thought with sadness. Professor Oak had a contemplative look on his face, as the legendary boy from the mountain came to his mind. He remembered exactly why he was up there in the first place, and Oak decided to ensure Cynthia wouldn't suffer the same fate.

"Cynthia." he said, causing her to look up at him "When you find whoever did this terrible thing, don't kill them." Cynthia looked shocked.

"What?! Why?!" she demanded angrily at the old man, who raised his voice as well to retort.

"You know damn well why not. You know exactly what killing Giovanni did to Red. Do you want to suffer the same fate?" he asked sharply. Cynthia was about to reply with an angry retort but stopped as his words went through her head. She sighed and closed her eyes, lowering her head in defeat.

"Yes, I'm aware, okay? I won't kill whoever did it." she said.

Professor Oak didn't buy it. This girl was like a grandchild to him, and he refused to let her kill somebody for revenge. Last time that happened a boy disappeared up a mountain, and the last thing he'd do is let it happen again.

"Swear it on Sarah's grave." he said bluntly. Cynthia's eyes widened in anger and she scowled at him, until she realized that the Professor didn't mean anything harmful. He had her cornered. She lowered her head in defeat again.

"I swear on Sarah's grave, I will not kill Grandma's murderer." she said slowly. He nodded and for some reason, she felt better. "I... I''m gonna go Professor. Ash wanted to speak to you, and remember, if _he_ comes down make sure he comes to Sinnoh." she said, receiving a nod from the old man.

After clearing her head, she walked back to the lobby and nodded to Ash, who got up and went to the booths. Cynthia sat down next to Dawn and laid back on the couch and let out a sigh.

"Hey Professor! How ya been? I just have a small request, is it okay if I send Torterra over for Sceptile? Also, can you send a small request to the Charific Valley..."

Cynthia had found a circular clearing to train in, and the first thing she did was bring out a practice mat she had borrowed from the Pokemon Center. She laid it out to its full length, which was about 15 feet in diameter, and it seemed as if she had a sparring ring set up. The ground below was almost completely flat, and regardless the mat protected anyone who should fall. Since the others had elected to wait at the Pokemon Center for Ash, the incredibly fit woman had to choose a sparring partner.

_ 'Lucario is probably the best choice, but I've trained with him the most in the last week. Ah fuck it lets try Garchomp.'_ and with that she summoned the enormous shark-like dragon, who upon materialization let loose a might roar that shook the whole forest. Cynthia sighed, this was gonna hurt.

"Garchomp come on let's spar." she said to her flagship pokemon, who roared in agreement before entering the makeshift sparring ring. Cynthia took of her weapons, which were still sheathed, and laid them against a tree. She also took off her black trench coat and laid that down as well. Now in combat pants and a sports bra, she entered the ring as well, cracking her knuckles as she did so. She did a couple stretches while Garchomp ran around sharpening it's claws on the massive trees. After this they both entered the ring and Cynthia got in her unarmed combat stance. Garchomp got ready as well, it's knees bent and arm blades a good distance apart.

Cynthia smirked, and rushed the massive dragon. She started out on the defensive, dodging all of Garchomp's precise bladed attacks, and soon she realized that though Garchomp was much faster than she was last time they spared, she still couldn't compete with Cynthia's speed and finesse. Unfortunately Cynthia couldn't compete with Garchomp's power, and it didn't help that Garchomp was extremely smart.

The Sinnoh Champion decided to go on the offensive after dodging a few more attacks, kicking out sharply at Garchomp's left leg. Her kick hit right below the knee, and actually caused Garchomp to grunt and almost stumble back. Cynthia smirked cockily, and took advantage of the momentary loss of balance. She landed strike across Garchomp's face and torso, although she only caused the beast to grunt a few times, clearly not very injured. Garchomp quickly regained it's balance, now pissed off at it's trainer, and let out a monstrous roar which didn't seem to faze the champion at all. Cynthia was smirking cockily at the dragon almost mocking it.

Garchomp narrowed her eyes. Time to show Ms. High-and-Mighty who's boss. But nobody said she couldn't have a little fun first. She smirked evilly.

Cynthia had accomplished her goal of pissing Garchomp off, and now all she needed to do was wait for the pseudo-legendary to move. _'I've got you right where I want y- Ugh!' _Cynthia stumbled, completely unprepared for the glob of spit that landed on her forehead, almost blocking her vision. She quickly wiped off what she could with one arm, and only narrowly dodged the vertical slash from the Mach Pokemon, and also ducking underneath the follow-up horizontal swing by a small margin. But Garchomp quickly spun around in a circle, and used her tail to bat Cynthia right in the midsection.

"Ooof!" said the blonde woman as she was swatted by the enormous tail, causing her to go airborne and fly back a couple feet before smashing into the mat on her back. She groaned and sat up, glaring at Garchomp, who was chuckling.

Cynthia huffed "You cheated!" she said angrily at the the laughing dragon. Cynthia stood up and got a towel and rubbed the remaining... unmentionables of her face in disgust. She turned back to Garchomp, who now had her back to the Sinnoh Champion, and was still laughing. Cynthia huffed again, and decided to catch the mach pokemon off guard. She quickly charged it from behind and launched herself at the beast, wrapping her arms around her neck from behind and trying to wrestle it to the ground.

Cynthia's small frame didn't bring down the dragon, but the surprise of the move caused Garchomp to make a weird surprised noise and stumble forward, tripping over it it's own feet and falling onto the mat, Cynthia on top. They spent the next several minutes rolling around the mat wrestling and grappling for dominance, Cynthia only able to keep up due to her flexibility. The Sinnoh Champion soon wormed her away into a position where she had Garchomp in a choke-hold from behind, and had maneuver herself so that Garchomp couldn't reach her despite it's protests.

Despite Cynthia's athletic build and the fact that she was giving it all she could, Garchomp didn't feel her air supply being cut off at all. But it couldn't do anything to the annoying gnat hanging off her back because she couldn't reach her. Garchomp smirked when she saw a massive tree by the edge of the clearing.

Cynthia was confused at first but soon realized what her starter had in mind when she stormed over to the tree and lined up in front of it, but with her back facing the tree. Cynthia panicked "Nonononono-augh!" she was cut off as Garchomp slammed its back into the tree, effectively crushing her trainer.

Garchomp smirked as she felt her trainer's hold weaken, but somehow the blonde woman still held on. The dragon lined itself up against the tree again.

Cynthia had gotten her breath knocked out of her, but somehow managed to hang on. _'I'm not losing this!'_ she was determined, and she had been thrown into massive objects with a lot of force before, but getting full body-slammed into a tree by a massive dragon still hurt. A lot. Cynthia regained her breath and gasped for air.

Garchomp smirked and took that as her cue to once again throw her whole body backwards into the tree. She heard her trainer yelp in shock and she lost her grip, causing Cynthia to fall face first onto the ground when Garchomp removed itself from the hole it had created in the tree.

Cynthia groaned and tried to make sense of her blurry vision, which was flashing colors left and right. Eventually her vision returned to normal and she looked up to see a massive Garchomp looking down at her with interest. "Oh no..." she murmured but and tried struggling when Garchomp lifted her up and brought her to the center of the mat, where it dropped her right back onto the floor. Cynthia was lying on her stomach now and was still trying to find the point of this, but she soon figured it out as Garchomp put it's right foot on Cynthia's back and did it's best to pose in victory, as if it were some sort of trophy.

"Hey! This isn't over yet! I haven't given up ye- OW OK I YIELD I YIELD!" the Champion was cut off as Garchomp put more pressure on Cynthia's back. "Why are you posing, there's nobody here?" she said to the attention loving pokemon. Just then she heard a cough and Dawn, Brock, and Ash stepped into the clearing, and they looked as if they had been laughing. Cynthia hadn't noticed them approach.

The Sinnoh Champion paled. "...how long were you guys there...?" she asked from underneath Garchomp's foot. This caused the group to snicker.

"Long enough" joked Dawn, before breaking out into laughter.

"Oh Arceus that's embarrassing." Cynthia muttered as she buried her face in her arms in shame. Of course this caused the group to laugh more. Thinking it's trainer had suffered enough, Garchomp released Cynthia and stalked over to a tree. Cynthia got up and looked angrily at the trio.

"I'd like to see you guys try and fight a pseudo-legendary dragon. Wouldn't be so funny then would it? Hmpf!" Cynthia said before stalking to the side and getting a water bottle.

"So Cynthia," said Ash "what are we going to do for training?" he hoped he didn't have to wrestle with Garchomp. Cynthia smiled and responded while drying herself off.

"Get out your preferred weapon, I want to see what you know." said the blonde woman. Dawn got out her quarterstaff, Brock got out his machete, and Ash got out his baton. Cynthia raised an eyebrow when she saw his weapon.

"Really? That's... that's all ya got?" she said sarcastically. Ash flushed in embarrassment.

"Hey this was all I could afford okay? And anyways I'm good with this!" he claimed, causing the Sinnoh Champion to roll her eyes.

"You'd look better with a sword. A matter of fact, I know a guy who has a really awesome sword, and I'm sure he'd be willing to give it to you." said Cynthia, before adding to herself "if he'd get off that damn mountain." Nobody seemed to hear her second comment though, and Ash was beaming up at her.

"Really? Cool! Where did he get it?" asked Ash, who was daydreaming what the sword might look like.

"Sky Pillar." said Cynthia, "now enough chatter, let's go to work!"

~ ~ ~ **CHAPTER 6 END **~ ~ ~

**So what did you think? Leave a review and let me know. If u have any ideas PM me and I'll get back to you. Make sure to vote on the poll at my Profile to decide what Cynthia's 6th Pokemon should be! This is my 3rd Upload attempt FF screwed up the first two taking out some words and replacing symbols with fucking Chinese letters or something. I didn't even notice and when I thought I fixed it nothing happened, so maybe this one will be better.**

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